Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1705, Chapter 1701: King of the Sky, Enlil

The assault boat's hatch slowly closed, leaving only dim white lights in the cabin.

Tita's armored hands gripped the sword hilt tightly, her half-human-sized boarding shield resting against her arm, and her large-caliber explosive gun firmly held in place by the magnetic lock on her weapon belt. Damped safety locks hanging from the ceiling secured each android firmly within the compartment. The visor closed, and the holographic HUD projections lit up one by one. She quickly scanned the screen, checking the flash-powered armor's energy, medical, and oxygen reserves, the various interfaces, and the armor's integrity, before closing her eyes. She knew her other sisters were doing the same thing, and she knew each of them shared the same emotions.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her anger.

As the orders in the contingency plan were rapidly and methodically issued through the communication channel, her breathing became stronger, and her heartbeat quickened. With the power armor activating combat mode, its power supply gradually increased; the heat emanating from the vents felt like the boiling alchemical blood within her, rather than the heat radiating from the fusion power core. The Emperor hadn't been away from the Punishment for very long, but even so, Tita could sense the anxiety of every crew member on board.

She witnessed the Emperor's Pegasus-class assault ship plunge into the vortex of Neptune's atmosphere, after which it completely lost signal. Even though the Emperor had explained to her that this might happen, she still felt something vital was missing from her soul. An officer at a meeting claimed that the Emperor might have encountered unpredictable danger, even implying that he was dead, and that they should change their voyage plans.

Before the meeting was over, the officer was relieved of his post by Tita and became a junior non-commissioned officer on the weapons deck.

This was the result of the Sisterhood's chief suppressing her anger. In the past, such an act that undermined the army's morale would have been court-martialed, or on the battlefield, executed on the spot by a military judge. Fortunately, the Emperor's dying orders preserved the Sisterhood's last shred of rationality. No one in the Sisterhood, from top to bottom, believed the Emperor was dead; they believed Neptune couldn't have killed him. Tita repeatedly declared to officers of all ranks that the Emperor had already assembled a fleet in space long before the Punishment entered space—a situation beyond their control, something they, who hadn't even ventured beyond the solar system, couldn't comment on. Now, Tita felt agonizing even with her eyes closed. She would rather kneel at the feet of the Emperor, whose whereabouts were unknown, than command warships to attack alien creatures on the edge of the solar system, even jumping into Neptune's atmospheric vortex together would be far better than enduring loneliness in the cold, desolate void.

But this was the Emperor's order, a principle that every android had to uphold with their life. The agonizing wait felt like scalding oil coursing through their veins, making the androids extremely irritable. If it weren't for the ample space on the Punishment to accommodate the training grounds, several violent clashes would surely have occurred. Even the most composed androids, like Aura, a heavy weapons marksman, were enraged by the Emperor's disappearance. The fleet's command structure was on par with the Sisterhood, and the space fleet's military discipline couldn't suppress the androids' fanaticism fueled by loyalty. Only the Sisterhood's command structure could restrain them, and Tita had made considerable efforts in this regard. During the time she wasn't participating in command meetings, she spent half her time sweating it out on the training grounds.

Tita opened her eyes again. Battle information from the bridge of the Punishment was clearly displayed before her via holographic projection. The Martian-built void missile cruisers had begun their attack. These nearly automated ships were entirely controlled by Martian technicians and cyborgs, requiring minimal logistical resources. These missile cruisers were the first wave of attacks. The images displayed on Tita's tactical command helmet also included the results of the Martian missile cruisers' attacks—she saw interstellar missiles streaking across the void like meteors, and the grid-like energy shields on the cylindrical alien space station erupting with supernova-like intense light. Immediately afterward, a bolt of lightning flashed across the energy shield, and a plasma warhead pierced through the shield, exploding on the surface of the space station. A large hole was torn in the surface of the space station, made of some unknown material, and a large amount of condensed air, debris, and alien crew members were sucked into space by the terrifying negative pressure.

The satellites launched ahead of schedule determined the coordinates of the gap and also the appearance of the alien creature.

That will be the landing point, and the enemy will be the blue-skinned Kree.

"Launch preparation. Five, four..." The indifferent automated announcement rang out in the cabin.

Tita opened her eyes, giving the power armor one last check of the data. She had led the Sisterhood in every war the Emperor had waged, and every android under her command was a seasoned veteran of the battlefield. She believed she was fully capable of carrying out the Emperor's orders. "Sisters!"

"For the Emperor!"

"...Three, two, one. Launch."

A familiar sense of propulsion came from behind.

War has broken out again, and her sword will once again be stained with the blood of aliens.

This thrilled her; it would be the best offering for the emperor, wherever he was.

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Captain Miller stared wide-eyed at what he was seeing, still unable to believe what he was witnessing.

The Imperial Guard, using hover assault motorcycles, detected the movements of a semi-nomadic, semi-hunting tribe. Even wielding stone spears, this tribe, having only recently domesticated wild horses, was a formidable force in the region. The Imperial Guard estimated that this semi-nomadic, semi-hunting tribe was targeting the previously detected semi-hunting, semi-gathering, semi-agricultural tribe. The Emperor's caravan then accelerated, and the Imperial Guard commander boarded a hover armored vehicle, leading half of the Imperial Guard directly towards the site of the conflict between the two tribes.

Without war or violence, the leaders of the two tribes were brought before the emperor.

At least in name only. In this era, monarchy had not yet taken shape.

These Neolithic humans didn't even have the blood of their own kind. Neither the semi-nomadic, semi-hunting raids nor the resistance of semi-hunting, semi-gathering, semi-agricultural tribes occurred. Everything vanished before the Imperial Guard that descended from the sky; courage and anger were annihilated like dust. Captain Miller couldn't understand their language, but he could discern their thoughts from the body language of the two Neolithic humans.

Submission. They knelt on the damp ground to express their submission.

The Emperor appeared before them only once, speaking in a language Captain Miller couldn't understand, and the humans shouted out a single word. The word sounded like "en," the main difference being the accuracy of their pronunciation. Immediately afterward, the commander of the Imperial Guard distributed the sheep from the caravan to the two tribes. The semi-nomadic, semi-hunter tribe was thrown onto the caravans, where the Imperial Guard taught them how to operate the chained vehicles. The semi-hunter, semi-gatherer, semi-agricultural tribe took the goats and cattle back. Both tribal chiefs stood beside the commander of the Imperial Guard, and these primitive people dressed in animal skins and linen seemed quite excited next to the giant-like Imperial Guard. There was no doubt that these two tribal chiefs might faint at any moment; even 21st-century humans might develop "superhuman phobia" because of the Imperial Guard's size, and there was no reason why these tribal chiefs would be spared.

It was obvious that the emperor intended to make the most of human resources.

As guides for the caravan, they showed no signs of defeat or dejection; instead, they were filled with excitement and surprise. Captain Miller suddenly found his earlier worries laughable. He had forgotten the historical trajectory of this era; even though the Emperor had repeatedly explained the relationship between relations of production and productive forces, he had forgotten that this was an age in which language and writing were slowly taking shape. He had no doubt that if he did something foolish, that stunningly beautiful maid would surely behead him.

"En means Enlil, and they regarded our Lord as a god."

Dinah's job today was to keep an eye on Captain Miller to prevent this foolish human, uneducated in sociology and Mesopotamian history, from causing trouble. While she'd gladly chop off the idiot's head, the Emperor claimed the man would be of great use. Such a person naturally deserved certain privileges, something Dinah couldn't do even if she wanted to throw him into a stasis chamber.

"En means master. By extension, it refers to the god of the earth and air, the god of wind and war, the creator, the father, the king, and the omnipotent lord of the universe. They are praising the righteousness and justice of our lord, trying to gain our lord's approval of their rule. This is the divine right of kings, the beginning of primitive monarchy."

Captain Miller had to admire the rich imagination of these primitive people.

While calling these people primitive is somewhat inaccurate, to people from the 21st century, there's little difference between a group developing writing and primitive people. In any case, he was extremely grateful that no violent conflict like genocide had occurred. He couldn't expect these early civilizations to correctly recognize that the Imperial Guard were merely genetically modified warriors; after all, these people didn't even know what steel was, let alone genes.

"Does your master rely on deception to subjugate these people?"

"To humanity, our Lord is God. To humanity at all times." Diana threw him a disdainful look. "You've never witnessed our Lord's ability to destroy a planetary civilization, which is why you utter such foolish words."

"He is also a human being, he said so himself. I have read his book 'The Unified Truth,' and he pursued human free will and equality."

"To Him, He is human. To you, possessing divine power is to be a god, at least until your minds fully embrace dialectics; otherwise, a person who walks on water would not be worshipped as a god. The ability to distinguish between these two is the ultimate goal of our Lord in expelling superstition."

Captain Miller desperately wanted to refute the claim that Christianity's longevity was due to its inherent philosophy, but he couldn't bring himself to speak, as he wasn't religious. Furthermore, he had just witnessed the birth of primitive religious worship and found the phenomena to be almost identical to the description of religious development in *The Unified Truth*—things that cannot be understood and summarized under limited empiricist dogma, things lacking strong logical correlation, are superstition. When unable to understand natural phenomena, humans naturally treat them as gods. For these humans, emperors and the Praetorian Guard were incomprehensible; since they couldn't be correctly understood, they could only resort to superstition, just like the Aesir gods known to the Norsemen—he was quite certain that a god named En existed on the Mesopotamian plain, only now that name belonged to the emperor. He was now also beginning to wonder if the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament was simply a relatively wealthy village in this era.

"Now your master has granted these people the power to rule, and then what?"

"In this era, the sacrifices offered to the gods are people, not lambs." Diana pointed at Captain Miller. "As the person in charge of educating those young children, you are now the high priest."

The high priest of the primitive civilization inexplicably took on the role of receiving sacrifices. His assistants included the armed maid Dinah and two royal guards. The emperor disdained to appear before these primitive settlements, nor did he need to. He simply had the caravan arrive in front of the tribe, where the tribal ruler would proclaim the name of Enlil and personally stuff the children, chosen by Dinah, into Captain Miller's caravan. There was no resistance; even the sacrifices themselves were utterly compliant, as each child was given a piece of candy. Humans' love of sugar is purely a matter of physical development. In this era of scarcity, there were almost no direct means of obtaining large quantities of sugar. The candy distributed to the children of these primitive civilizations could almost buy a strong adult laborer, and no one would feel wronged about selling themselves for a piece of candy. Moreover, the children's parents were beaming with joy at the lambs given to them by the high priest, the tribal chief, and the golden angels (royal guards).

Compared to emperors, who were considered "deities" who received offerings and then bestowed gifts upon their "believers," the sacrifices required for unknown deities in primitive religions during this era were far more bloody—such as burning children alive or vivisectioning prisoners to remove their internal organs. The "sacrifices" required by the emperor appeared far more civilized. What pleased Captain Miller even more was that the emperor, through the Imperial Guard and the armed maid Dinah, issued instructions to these primitive tribes that from then on, all sacrifices would only require offering a portion of food at a specific time, after which all tribesmen could share the offerings.

Captain Miller couldn't understand the language of these primitive tribes; everything was relayed by the armed maid, Dina.

“Laugh at me,” Captain Miller said, slumping into a simple chair. “I admit, I missed this part of my education. I was also worried about your massacre of these primitive tribes.” The Emperor ignored him, instead fiddling with the strange machine on the table. The machine, which looked to be made of brass and rubies, hummed softly, and the air crackled with static electricity and frost from the sudden drop in temperature. “Were you planning to make a fool of yourself from the start?” Captain Miller asked. “Otherwise, you would have stopped my foolish actions.”

"There's no need," the Emperor said in a low voice. The closer one got to the machine, the more indistinct his voice became, as if a thousand voices were uttering simultaneously. Captain Miller had lost interest in the anomalies around the Emperor; he had no interest in investigating whether they were related to the machine. "You must begin to accept new knowledge, Captain Miller. Those children will be your crew in the future, and I want them to have the right understanding."

"There aren't enough teaching tools in the caravan."

"So we will establish a base in a suitable location." The Emperor's expression finally changed. He was smiling, but Captain Miller had a rather uneasy feeling; he had a premonition that he was about to hear some information that would shatter his understanding. "That base, let's call it Eden."