Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1714, Chapter 1710: The Expedition and News of Agamotto

Captain Miller rode slowly through the woods, along the rugged path trodden by loggers and timber merchants, followed by a large group of mounted soldiers. They wore identical uniforms, carried lances, and had lever rifles tucked into their saddle straps. Simple breastplates were engraved with thunderbolts and eagles, and the spikes on their helmets were adorned with bright red manes. The leather shoulder armor, studded with copper, slapped against their blood-red cloaks with each slow gait of their horses.

This is an army, formed by the emperor's order and funded by the temple. Its predecessor was the city-state defense force established during the first twenty years of the emperor's reign over Eridu. It consisted entirely of citizens of good character, descendants of the first chosen ones, local natives, and so on, with no slaves or foreigners, and its number did not exceed three hundred.

Such an army would be sufficient to deal with all the city-states and villages on the Mesopotamian plain that refused to submit, bringing them under taxation and administrative control. The emperor's labor-intensive factories would also need enough manpower to produce weapons, equipment, and daily necessities. The army following Captain Miller now numbered over two thousand, each soldier carrying enough weapons, ammunition, and supplies to last five days. Behind the long column of cavalry were wagons loaded with even more food and medicine.

Six years ago, when he tried to question the emperor about his student Kadmoz's employment, the emperor dismissed him from his post. Six years later, Kadmoz rode alongside him on horseback, a testament to the complete failure of his previous efforts. The emperor had unhesitatingly thrown him into Egypt. He was not the commander of this army, nor was Kadmoz; they were merely members of an intelligence team. It was on that same day six years ago that the emperor informed Captain Miller of the threats they would face and his plans to expand the army. The emperor had loosened restrictions on army recruitment; all former slaves of the conquered could gain citizenship after working for a certain period. Some young men who had worked in factories were recruited for their discipline, and the original three hundred soldiers became officers at various levels within this army.

During the decades of the emperor's reign, Eridu experienced unprecedented growth, with its population increasing far beyond the carrying capacity of the city-state and its surrounding villages. Even officials like Captain Miller could enjoy melon, prosciutto, and clear beer during afternoon tea. However, to supply this army, the temple and Eridu had nearly emptied their reserves of food and gold. Fortunately, the emperor had begun strategic stockpiling over a decade earlier, so the lives of Eridu's commoners were temporarily unaffected. But if this expedition continued for too long, no one could guarantee that Eridu wouldn't revert to its pre-emperor state.

"In a few thousand years, this place will become a desert."

Kadmoz turned his head. "Why?"

"Because of the climate. The Ice Age is over, and the climate here is getting drier and drier. Do you remember the report from the coastal observation tower? The growth rate of the alluvial plain is slowing down." Captain Miller patted a passing tree—the so-called coastal observation tower was actually a combination of a series of observation stations and lighthouses along the coast, mainly responsible for reporting tidal trends to the emperor and guiding fishermen in the near seas. It was also a concrete symbol of the influence of the city-state of Elidu. The vegetation here was extremely diverse, with oak trees being the best material for making furniture. Correspondingly, oak wood was the most expensive, not to mention that the emperor's factories consumed a lot of wood to make lever rifles. In addition, there were pistachio trees and many rose family plants. Sometimes people could even find ostriches outside the forest. Those silly birds greatly enriched the Eliduans' tables, after all, no one would have thought that such animals would compete with the Eliduans for the salmon of the Euphrates River.

"That was thousands of years in the future. The river is still overflowing, and the emperor has to spend a fortune every year to build dikes." My father's first job was building dikes. He was supposedly pulled out of the water by the emperor, and he told me this every day before I left home, saying it was the first full meal our family had ever had." Kadmoz shook his head. "Now it seems like a good thing. I mean, the climate."

"This land might turn into a desert, Kadmoz, which is definitely not a good thing. But you're right, that's thousands of years from now, not something we should be concerned about now."

Kademoz shrugged and said nothing more.

The four-month march took its toll on every soldier. Every time they stopped or set up camp, the army would send out scout teams to hunt animals while reconnoitering the road ahead. Even so, limited cooking time and a limited supply of spices meant that even wild goats with their exaggerated horns were hardly delicious.

Captain Miller sighed. Even though Cadmos was his student, he couldn't share his feelings about this land with him; it was a gap between a person living in the 21st century and someone living in the 6th millennium BC.

The ancient Egyptians called this place the Turquoise Staircase because the civilized Egyptians would come here to mine, and itinerant merchants from Elidu would also come to buy sky-blue turquoise from lumberjacks and local residents. Captain Miller had seen exquisitely crafted turquoise jewelry, the most beautiful of which was a gold piece inlaid with turquoise, lapis lazuli, and carnelian, sculpted into the shape of a viper or snake, which hung around Inanna's neck; it was a gift from a jeweler to the emperor.

But thousands of years from now, this once beautiful peninsula, known as the Turquoise Steps, covered in trees and shrubs and dotted with lakes, will become a desert. The only things worth praising will be the mountainous settlements in the south, the coral reefs near the sea, and the Abbey of St. Catherine. There is certainly no Abbey of St. Catherine now, and there are no tourist attractions. He doubted that the coral reefs were anything special either.

This is the Sinai Peninsula, a crucial passage to Egypt, less than half a month's journey from our true destination. Before this expedition, he and Kadmoz had spent nearly a year near Egypt, organizing the intelligence gathered by the emperor's agents. If it weren't for that question six years ago, he might never have known that the emperor had developed an intelligence network during his nearly thirty-year reign over Elidu. Part of this network had penetrated deep into Greece, while another part remained in Lower Egypt, investigating intelligence regarding the "Blue Angels."

The so-called Blue Angels are actually aliens.

Captain Miller wasn't surprised by the existence of aliens; what truly intrigued him was that they had arrived on Earth so early. This made him question how many of Earth's myths were actually alien legends, and how credible were the alien conspiracy theories he'd seen online. Regardless of whether those blue-skinned aliens appeared in myths, it was clear the Emperor had no intention of letting them have their way. However, Captain Miller had concerns about whether his army, equipped with gunpowder weapons, could handle the aliens.

The emperor seemed to share a similar idea, so at the rear of the army was a special squad of five men. These men never rested or ate with the others, and rarely spoke to anyone except for necessary exchanges. They were wizards, educated from childhood in a special school within the temple until the commander of the royal guard confirmed they were capable of wielding their powers.

"Go back after you complete this guidance mission," Captain Miller suddenly said. "Your son was just born; there's no need for you to take on the next mission. Don't argue with me, Cadmos. I'm your superior in the organization. Inanna has blessed you and your wife; perhaps another child is waiting to be born."

"This is the seventh time since we started marching. Whether you're my teacher or my superior, my answer remains the same." Kadmoz glanced at the laughing and joking marching column behind him. The soldiers were all about his age, and he had a much better relationship with them than with the wizard at the back of the column. "Nobody knows how many will die fighting the aliens, and I have no right to hide in the rear. That would be shameful and unfair."

Captain Miller sighed; he felt he simply couldn't persuade his student to do something related to security.

"Aren't you also planning to go to the front lines?" Kadmoz said. "Who knows what abilities those alien slaves have?"

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He stood at the foot of the throne room steps, looking up at the human figure enveloped in light.

The light faded, and a smiling young man wearing a golden laurel crown rose from the throne, ignoring the barrage of questions posed by Captain Miller. The emperor knew this all too well. Captain Miller always wore this expression whenever the moral codes and survival-oriented principles of the 6000s BC clashed with the individualistic, idealistic values ​​instilled by a pampered education system. If a 21st-century human had lived in this era for twenty years, their perspective should have changed; Captain Miller's stubborn nature resisted any sudden change.

But at least he has come to accept reality, such as the slave system of this era.

Six years ago, the emperor, seated on his throne in the temple hall, was bathed in the afternoon sunlight filtering through a thin veil, his golden crown gleaming. Inanna, the breathtakingly beautiful, dark-haired goddess from the wilderness, sat on another throne, draped in a pristine white, form-fitting robe that barely concealed her fertility-inducing allure, and around her neck a viper collar inlaid with turquoise, lapis lazuli, and carnelian. This goddess didn't put on airs—in fact, it wasn't the time to entertain pregnant women and unmarried girls of Elidu, and even as Captain Miller entered the temple, Inanna showed no sign of stopping her munching on biscuits—she smiled at Captain Miller, but his mood didn't improve.

"This is an expedition, Miller. Our enemies are not only the Kree and their slaves. I need someone to fight against those humans who have sided with the Kree, and those mutants who have been modified by the Kree." The Emperor raised a smooth, round shield. Captain Miller knew this bronze shield was far more complex than it appeared. In fact, everything around the Emperor seemed extraordinary, and he had never imagined a sword could possess such power. He could only attribute it to technology he didn't understand. "You are worthy to know the mission you will be loyal to. Twenty years ago, I promised you that I would show you my resolve and my actions. The Aegis will be the shield protecting humanity, both known and unknown, against enemies that hinder human progress. In the name of great science, silent mathematics, unspoken truth, hidden art, and secret alchemy, place your hand on the Aegis and swear to commit yourself to this cause, Miller."

"So, where's your spear?"

Captain Miller pointed to another weapon leaning against the throne. He was deeply impressed by that weapon because, years earlier, when the observatory announced a meteorite would fall into the nearby sea, all of Elidu had witnessed the emperor wielding a long spear to shatter the meteorite and avert a potential tsunami. This act further solidified the emperor's divine image in the hearts of the Eliduans. Captain Miller believed that the meteorite was unlikely to cause much damage, and that the emperor's act of shattering the meteorite was more likely a political maneuver.

"The spear is for another group, a more aggressive one, who will one day join me on my journey to the alien homeworld. I will forge weapons and shields for the human race, and these two organizations with such different missions are my plan. Shield and spear, Captain Miller, I want weapons and armor to be equally robust."

Captain Miller, sullen and bearing the Emperor's warning, left, even forgetting the invitation to dinner extended by Head Maid Dinah. The sense of mission, sacrifice, and honor instilled by the secret organization was irresistible, and Inanna was no exception. The Hydra family, even before its founding, had survived for millennia, partly thanks to this lofty sense of mission. However, "stubborn Mr. Miller" had already been baptized by this sense of mission and had no particular expectations of joining the secret organization—even when the Emperor told him that the so-called Supreme Council of Shield would, after thousands of years of development, spawn a branch called S.H.I.E.L.D., Miller wasn't surprised—every time his dissatisfaction with the Emperor was interrupted by an increasingly imminent threat, and every time he had to rationally understand the Emperor's decisions. Twenty years was enough time for him to develop feelings for this primitive city, but the Emperor's decision would drain all of its resources; he couldn't imagine what would happen then.

"Why didn't you tell him that another alien insectoid race is coming to Earth?"

Inanna frowned, a rare occurrence for her.

As an ally of the Emperor, she had been involved in almost all of his actions since his arrival in this era, including intelligence unknown to Captain Miller. She recalled the corpse on the dissection table behind the temple, a prisoner sent from the "Turquoise Stairs" by the intelligence organization. Although the corpse's appearance was indistinguishable from a human, the results of the vivisection showed that the chitinous carapace beneath the human skin and the pincer-shaped snout growing beneath the skull indicated that the prisoner had been parasitized before being sent there. When the parasite matured, this alien species would shed its human body like a molt. Because the host's appearance and behavior were indistinguishable from ordinary people, the intelligence organization discovered this parasitized host by chance during an operation, and had no other information. The intelligence organization was also unable to ascertain how many people had been parasitized.

The only certainty is that this alien species has an extremely strong reproductive drive.

This was Inanna's territory, and she could vaguely sense the direction and number of these parasites.

"Since you trust him, why don't you tell him about the other threat we're about to face?"

“One battle at a time, Inanna,” the Emperor said. “Based on experimental data and current population density, these alien species won’t spread so quickly. We still have time to figure out what we don’t know. For example, where they came from.”

"So where are you going next?"

"The Himalayas—it's not called that yet," the Emperor said. "Lord Agamotto agreed to help me establish interdimensional communication, on the condition that I help him seal three demons entrenched there. He intends to build it into an arcane fortress to observe outer dimensions and watch over Earth. I am very interested in the organization he is about to establish."

"Agomoto's still alive?" Inanna was clearly surprised, even forgetting to brush off the cookie crumbs that had fallen onto her skirt. For this deity who once lived in the wilderness, aside from the inorganic life forms of the Celestials whose mass was enough to cause tides, few things could cause permanent damage to a deity constructed from the natural energy of Earth. The Celestials were more like gods than the gods of the wilderness, and even the few deities who would later establish their own pantheons could not treat the arrival of the Celestials lightly, because the Celestials could cause them utter annihilation.

This resulted in immense psychological trauma for many deities who once believed they could rule the world.

For the spirit-based gods of the wilderness, spiritual trauma was far more severe than physical trauma, and might never heal. The war that drove out the Celestials resulted in the annihilation of countless animistic primordial deities (some of whom appeared only in animal form). Primitive human civilization couldn't even record the names and legends of these deities; they simply returned to being natural energy, with only a very few lucky survivors. Inanna, who had personally experienced the Second Advent, had already met the Emperor. Although the Emperor hadn't interacted with any of the main forces on the battlefield—Odin in his Destroyer armor and the Wizard King Agamotto—both the Emperor's holy sword forged from the planet itself and his gleaming royal guard were incredibly conspicuous on the chaotic battlefield of the Second Advent.

At that time, Inanna was merely a wild deity protecting animal reproduction, and the second descent was an insurmountable terror for her. Later, Inanna chose human civilization, and as the human race gradually grew stronger, when Neolithic humans elevated racial reproduction to a divine status, she too was fleshed by the human population of the Mesopotamian plain around 10,000 BC, gaining her own body.

Twenty years ago, when the Emperor first met Inanna, she naively and unreservedly told him her experiences and asked him to grant her the authority to wage war. Fighting is an animal instinct, a human instinct, and also Inanna's instinct. Reproduction in nature is itself a competition. Whether it's a duel between stags for mating rights, a male lion driving away all the young males in a pride to monopolize all the lionesses and continue its lineage, or even the war between different ant colonies for habitat, reproduction is inextricably linked to war, and even humans, who claim to have transcended animalistic instincts, cannot avoid it.

Inanna chose the human race over the wilderness, strengthening herself through human faith. Therefore, she cannot escape the power of that faith. Her soul shines ever brighter in the vast sea. Once her power is removed, she will face true death. Thus, Inanna disregards evil and justice; for her own survival, she cares only for the propagation and survival of the human race. On the grounds of protecting humanity, she is completely aligned with the Emperor.

The emperor's rationality made him distrustful of emotions, but shared interests allowed him to trust Inanna to a limited extent.

In this era, there is no more reliable ally than Inanna.

Although Agamotto was also a mythical figure to her.

"Agomotho is also a member of the High Council of the Holy Shield, holding the alchemy seat, just as you hold the art seat." The Emperor smiled, raising the hand adorned with three rings. Of these three rings, only the sky-blue prophecy gem ring did not emit its brilliant light, signifying that the Emperor's pact with the Vishanti was not yet fully effective. "He's dying, which is why I'm so interested."