Marvel Magic Case Files

A silent explosion erupted from the bridge connecting the forward compartment and the engine room, sending rings of flame and shattered steel hurtling into space like crimson ripples spreading across a dark void. The immense thrust of the directional blast, as originally designed, separated the forward compartment from the engine room while propelling it forward. The violent tremor threw First Officer Stark and Lieutenant Cooper, who were anxiously waiting in the forward compartment, onto the deck, finally making them realize what had happened.

First Officer Stark gritted her teeth and struggled to her feet, her ribs throbbing with pain. She pressed her face against the porthole, watching as the engine room was engulfed in blinding electric currents and plunged into Neptune's raging storm. Seconds later, the engine room vanished into the violent storm of hydrogen and helium. They saw a gaping hole, filled with lightning and foul light, form in the center of the terrifying storm, massive amounts of gas and bridge debris being pulled in by the powerful suction—they realized Captain Miller would never return—the survivors felt no joy at surviving the catastrophe. First Officer Stark, covered in sticky blood, simply stared at the horrific vortex in Neptune's atmosphere. The ship from hell had returned to where it belonged, but it had taken with it their bravest warrior.

"We should get into the hibernation pods as soon as possible," Lieutenant Cooper managed to squeeze out a sentence in his hoarse, dry throat. "He'll want us to survive; the people on Earth need to know what happened here."

First Officer Stark gazed at the expanse of space that had buried most of them. She couldn't imagine whether people on Earth would have the courage to step into this desolate place if they knew what terrors awaited them in the depths of space. Would they have succumbed to nihilism and completely denied the meaning of courage and exploration?

"I'll be ready soon." She lowered her head. "We will survive."

Seventy-two hours later, a Pegasus-class assault transport craft was slowly approaching the slow-moving cockpit. "Punishment, this is the search and rescue team. We've located the target. Prepare to board," the sergeant announced over the comms. He put on his helmet, turned to the soldiers behind him, and said, "Get your weapons ready. We don't know what's inside."

"I will inform the Emperor and provide you with support." Tita stared anxiously at the dots representing the two Pegasus-class assault transport ships on the screen. One dot was docked near the forward compartment of the Event Horizon, which had been detected long ago, while the other headed straight for the vortex in Neptune's upper atmosphere that was constantly releasing electricity and light. When the first batch of soldiers in void combat suits entered the ship's cabin, armed with laser and thermoelectric weapons, the light from the lighting equipment on their armor pierced through the thick darkness, and all they could see were human bodies immersed in a pale green decompression fluid.

"Entered the hibernation pod. There was no damage from the explosion." The backlighting device rotated and adjusted its angle according to the sergeant's gaze. "Three survivors have been located. We are checking the crew list. They are Lieutenant Cooper, First Officer Stark, and Lieutenant Justin. Lieutenant Justin appears to have suffered serious injuries and requires urgent medical assistance. The hibernation pod is out of power, so we cannot determine their survival status."

"Prepare the transfer procedure. I need them alive; they need to be able to tell me what happened there." Tita opened another communication channel. "My lord, the search and rescue team has found three survivors..." She waited a while before the voice that brought her joy came through the communication channel. "I understand. Protect them and transfer them to the Immortal City for treatment. Continue the mission; we must clear the Kree outpost."

"Are you really not going to change your target, my lord?" Tita replied urgently. "Even you haven't used your physical body from the material universe to set foot in the spacetime structural wound. We don't know what dangers lie there." There was no more sound from the communication channel, but Tita seemed to have heard something; her expression slowly softened. She let out a long breath. "I will complete your mission. You must come back. I don't believe the witch can complete that mission." She watched the point of light on the screen disappear into Neptune's atmosphere and vanish completely. She reopened the search and rescue team's communication system and called the soldier with the overly cute name, "Sergeant Nikki, continue reporting."

------

Even while surrounded by flames, he still felt cold.

Several seconds had passed since he pressed the button, and the monster in human skin made no move. It simply stared at him, then slowly approached. He tried to struggle, but merely rolling over caused him to gasp for air filled with thick smoke from the wounds in his ribs and legs, making him cough uncontrollably. The more he coughed, the more intense the pain in his ribs became. Miller wiped the blood-soaked coolant from his face. "You lost, demon." He felt no regret, no fear. He simply smiled. "Cooper, Stark, and Justin are alive. They won't belong to you."

"But you belong to me. I have already tasted many souls, and you will be the next sacrifice, Miller." The monster that was once Dr. Will slowly grabbed his collar, blood squeezing from between its wounded fingers. Its face was still filled with smugness. "Time has no meaning. We will eventually return to the material universe. We existed in the eternal darkness long before the birth of the first intelligent life in the universe, and we will still exist until the universe turns into scorching entropy. Your sacrifice is meaningless, your victory is nothing but self-satisfied entertainment, and we will dance and gorge ourselves before the ruins of the civilizations built by all the self-important species, tasting the dust turned from human bones, until the universe falls into eternal night."

The sound of melting metal drew its attention, and even Miller couldn't help but glance at the engine bay entrance. There, the heavy airtight door was melting at an incredible speed, crimson molten metal cascading down like a waterfall. He noticed for the first time a human emotion appear on the scratched face of the monster in human skin—fear, as if something that could terrify the embodiment of fear was right outside the door. When the airtight door melted open enough for a person to pass through, golden light pierced through hell, and the demon possessing Dr. Will's body recoiled as if struck by lightning. It released its grip on him, cursing in a language from hell.

In the first second, the golden figure crashed into the engine room like lightning striking from the clouds. He couldn't see the figure's appearance clearly; he only felt the demigod-like giant, accompanied by a hurricane that swept through the ship, rush towards the demon, thrusting a lightning-streaked weapon into the body possessed by the demon. In the first 1.2 seconds, flames erupted from the weapon's tip, as if thunder had finally reached him, shaking his heart and brain. In the first 1.5 seconds, the demon's entire body burst into blinding flames, and venomous blasphemous words filled the engine room, but the golden light that followed melted away all the frost from hell. Captain Miller blinked drowsily, feeling the coolant soaking half his body warm up. In the first 1.8 seconds, more golden-armored demigods rushed into the engine room. They didn't attack Dr. Will, nor did they help him; instead, they stood on either side of the engine room's passageway entrance. In the second second, when the pain that had swept through his body disappeared, Captain Miller finally closed his eyes in exhaustion. All the cold, all the pain, vanished.

The last thing he saw was a star crashing into the engine compartment.

--------

Stark collapsed onto the wet deck. She vomited the decompression fluid from her trachea, her body trembling uncontrollably, the bruises between her ribs already yellowed, and every breath she took was painful. The rescue team helped her up and draped a thermal blanket over her. A soldier in Void combat armor said, "Relax, you're safe."

"Justin, Cooper..." she said, her voice trembling. The hibernation pod was dark; she didn't know if it was because the independent power supply had failed or the lighting had short-circuited. In any case, she only cared about her companion now.

"It's alright, they're all here." When the soldier took off his helmet, Stark saw Dr. Will's scarred face.

She opened her eyes and began to scream.

"Calm down, it's me!" Lieutenant Cooper pressed down on First Officer Stark's wildly flailing arms. The search and rescue team had already turned on all the lights in the hibernation pods. "Calm down!"

"Relax, you're saved!" The soldier turned to Hand, the medical team behind him, "Sedatives! We need sedatives here!"

"Relax, we're saved, Stark," Lieutenant Cooper reassured her. He looked up at the soldiers before him—they wore black spacesuits he'd never seen before, and the writing on them wasn't in English, French, Russian, or Chinese. The only thing he could make out was the golden eagle emblem on the chest. Compared to spacesuits made by countries with spacefaring capabilities, these were not only thinner but also fitted with many layers of armor that looked like composite ceramic. The weapons these rescue team members carried further fueled his suspicions—he pressed down on Stark, who was struggling like a fish on land, and asked, "Who are you?"

"We are carrying out this rescue mission under the Emperor's orders." Sergeant Nikki squinted, carefully observing Lieutenant Cooper and Stark's eyes. These men were victims of extradimensional contamination, their minds severely damaged. He needed to make judgments and take temporary measures on the spot. If a human was contaminated, he would need to isolate that person before imprisoning them in the secret prison of the Immortal City.

First Officer Stark gradually calmed down and looked at the search and rescue team in horror.

The nightmare was over, and she realized she was saved.

"We will be responsible for transferring Lieutenant Justin." The assault sergeant stood up. "If you are still able to move, you'd better put on the extravehicular activity suits we brought and transfer with us."

First Officer Stark, with Lieutenant Cooper's help, stood up. "What are you going to do with this ship?"

"Blow it up," the assault sergeant said. "It shouldn't exist in this world."

Lieutenant Cooper surprisingly agreed with this statement.

--------

He opened his eyes, and the afternoon sunlight shone through the leaves onto his eyelids.

Miller stretched comfortably on the bench. He felt like he'd had a good, long, dreamless sleep. The grogginess of waking made him forget why he was there, then he recognized his surroundings: Prospect Park in Brooklyn. He was sitting by the park's boat dock, having just finished a visit to the zoo with his girlfriend, and earlier they'd gone to the Brooklyn Museum—the community children's art exhibits must have made him drowsy. He remembered buying an outrageously expensive, ugly mug—a $715 mug that looked like pink marshmallows poured into a cup of hot cocoa. The ugly mug sat in the gift box beside him, ready to be given to his girlfriend as she went to buy groceries, because she loved the work of an artist named Christian Moses [Note].

Even though she had already seen him buy this ugly thing.

He couldn't help but laugh, intending to continue squinting and enjoying this rare holiday.

This was the life he had longed for, a place where he could escape the coldness of space and endless dangers, and also the terrifying unknown, and Will… Miller suddenly remembered something. He abruptly opened his eyes, but couldn't recall what he had forgotten; only a certain intuition was reminding him that he had forgotten something important. A man dressed like a parish priest sat on a bench, and Miller noticed three dazzling gemstone rings of different colors on the man's right hand.

"It's a wonderful life, isn't it?"

"Yes." Miller looked up at the man, his guard involuntarily lowering. "Do you come here often?"

"Only once. The only time I came here was many years ago, when I was with the children from the orphanage."

"I'm sorry," Miller said.

“You might have misunderstood; it was me who took care of them,” the man said with a smile. “I lived in New York for many years, and I visited those children frequently. Even though I was only a teenager then, I already had a lot of assets, so I always provided them with the best food and education. They received their education from my adoptive mother and worked for me after they grew up. My adoptive mother was very picky, even a bit cold-hearted; she only chose the gifted children, and the less intelligent ones would be abandoned. I have always disagreed with this kind of selection because intelligence doesn't mean everything.”

"Are you a pastor?"

"If you're judging my identity by my collar, I wouldn't mind having a chat with you."

"That was certainly a bit offensive, but I have no religious questions to answer," Miller shrugged. He paused, watching the crowd walk by in the distance. "So, who did you come with?"

The man turned to look at him, and Miller felt he knew the answer.

"What do you mean?"

"This is your most beautiful dream, Miller, the source of your courage. That demon once forced you to submit, but it failed. Though it possessed endless life, boundless power, and limitless knowledge, it still failed. You defeated it, Miller, it failed because of its contempt for human courage and sacrifice."

"I don't understand what you're saying." Miller stood up angrily, masking his fear with rage. He felt that if he continued listening, he would eventually understand what this person was saying. But he didn't want it to end there. "If you don't mind, I'm waiting for the others..."

"It will haunt you because it resents defeat. It's not dead yet. To be precise, it never had life, and therefore it will never die. It fled quickly, leaving only an empty shell, a bewitched, pathetic man. It bewitched Will's wife, just to leave a hole in his soul." The man also stood up. "It, and all that it belongs to, has always been a nightmare for all higher intelligent beings in the universe. Humanity cannot escape their clutches. Captain Miller, they will continue to plague the human race. They killed all the crew of the Event Horizon, Dr. Peters, Dr. Will, Lieutenant Smith, and Major DJ. They will continue to slaughter. So I made a choice: revenge. This plan will take a very long time to complete."

Captain Miller stared at him without responding.

"Enjoy your dream, Miller." The man vanished. "Consider my invitation carefully."

[Note] You can actually buy this at the Brooklyn Museum; it's a really ugly cup.