Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1719 The Legacy of the Celestial Group

Rosa sat relaxed on the greenhouse sofa, legs crossed. Bayonetta had briefly described her dream to her during their earlier phone call, which had convinced her to leave Badr behind and fly directly from Miami to Oxfordshire. She picked up the Cheshire Cat lying on the sofa, but the chubby cat didn't dare resist and could only obediently accept Rosa's petting.

"What did you see? I mean, exactly what did you see?" She asked impatiently as soon as she sat down. "Your identity in the dream will explain most of the secrets, dear Ceresa."

As the former owner of the Eye of the World and the former leader of the Shadow Witches, Rosa received a far more comprehensive education than Bayonetta or Jeanne d'Arc—when the witch hunts occurred, Bayonetta and Jeanne d'Arc were still vying for the title of Shadow Witch, a title that had previously belonged to Rosa. These two witches of this era knew very little about the knowledge the Shadow Witches had accumulated over the years, because after the Sage of Light conquered the Shadow Witches' stronghold, their first act was to burn all the knowledge the Shadow Witches had accumulated—when Rosa returned to the former Shadow Witch stronghold, she often vented her anger on Baldr about this, even though it wasn't Baldr from this timeline who burned down the library.

"To be honest, I don't know." Bayonetta wasn't sitting; instead, she gazed through the greenhouse glass at Milia playing with Miss Peanutbutter outside. She had once suspected Milia and Salomon were related by blood, perhaps able to trace Salomon's coordinates in the timeline through Milia's blood. But it turned out Milia was just a gifted girl. Another path was through a blood divination ritual, using shadows, bird entrails, and blood. To perform the ritual, she had to send her soul into the Witch's Path, gaining greater power and wisdom from the outer dimensions. Only in this way, even if she couldn't bypass Salomon's protective magic, could she at least get a rough location, and perhaps Salomon would respond after sensing that his protective magic had been touched.

However, she didn't possess Salomon's blood sample; the only complete genetic sample remained in the Immortal City's research lab, the safest place. Without a formal written order from Victor von Doom, no piece of genetic code could leave the laboratory beneath Rome. If she didn't directly tell Victor von Doom why she needed the blood sample, this man who trusted no one but the Emperor probably wouldn't agree.

Jeanne believed that they might not need Victor von Doom to obtain Salomon's genetic sample, since he had lived in the manor for so long and would inevitably leave some traces. Jeanne completely forgot how strictly the Sisterhood, represented by Dinah, controlled the Emperor's genetic sample—the cleansing agent used a special protease developed by the Immortal City, designed to destroy any genetic fragments that left the Emperor's body. Even when enjoying daily pleasures, Dinah would consume a considerable amount of complete genetic samples, even though Salomon had already given them the seeds—Byunita and Jeanne had greatly appreciated Dinah's service, and they themselves had consumed quite a bit, since Salomon's seeds were rich in vitality and the best choice for replenishing magic.

As an organization originating around the same time as Rome, the Shadow Witches retained many Roman cultural customs. For example, before officially receiving their titles, witches were virgins sacrificed to the path of witches. Rosa's sins at the time included not only giving birth to Bayonetta or having an affair with the Sages, but also the grave sin of betraying her oath. If judged according to the oldest witch laws, Rosa would have been walled up and starved to death. Fortunately, the Shadow Witches, living in Europe and influenced by Christianity, had already abolished some of these laws. However, the Shadow Witches never experienced the Enlightenment or the Renaissance, and some aspects of their culture, which seemed quite licentious under medieval moral standards, remain in the few remaining witches.

According to Rosa, the strong fertility cult prevalent in ancient Rome still influences the Shadow Witch. If this were over a thousand years ago, a male with powerful psychic abilities like Salomon wouldn't have been available to Bayonetta and Joan of Arc; if she hadn't already given birth, she might have shared in that power.

"You really didn't leave a single thing? What about Joan of Arc? Didn't she leave anything either?" Rosa, after hearing Bayonetta's plan, stared suspiciously at Bayonetta's lower abdomen. "It's been so long, why?"

"Magic altered his body; mortal bodies could not bear his power. He is immortal."

Bayonetta, unusually, showed signs of annoyance. In the past, she would have only commented on the matter with her usual elegant yet arrogant tone, perhaps even joking about Salomon, declaring that he would always be popular with young women. She wasn't worried about being old when the Emperor returned. Having once possessed the Eye of the World had also enhanced her body, and now the pure aether the Emperor had created using a quarter of the Reality Stone was, for all psionicists, the Philosopher's Stone, granting them immortality.

“This means he will experience the full torment of time, and nobody knows what he will be like when he returns. He has only lived in this era for twenty-odd years, but in the long river of history, he has lived for thousands of years. Will such a life reshape him? He should be back in this time to meet us now, but he hasn't, and nobody knows his whereabouts. Victor von Doom claims he doesn't know about Salomon's prophecy, nor what would happen if he traveled to the past, but I don't believe him.” Bayonetta's tone was irritated. “The fact that he hasn't appeared before me now means there's a problem with time travel. He never discusses this with me, and I can't express my opposition. Victor von Doom believes time travel is necessary; he needs time to study it. If he's hiding in time, the spiritual entities of other dimensions won't be able to find him.”

"What did you see?" Rosa asked again.

"I saw him—wielding a burning sword against the steel jungle, with golden-armored guards surrounding him; I saw him walking among burning corpses, with spears erected on the vast plains, and countless living people being pushed into pits and strangled alive by the earth at his command; I saw him sailing on the sea, with huge shadows rising from the bow of the ship beneath the surface, and a horse-shaped sea monster appearing in the waves."

"These are prophetic dreams, full of metaphors, caused by your close relationship with him," Rosa asked. "But who are you, Ceresia? From whose perspective are you seeing these things?"

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After returning from the Himalayas to the Mesopotamian plain, the emperor continued with his previous plans.

He and Inanna first made a public appearance at the festival celebrations in Elidu, then ostentatiously led the Royal Guard and Dinah aboard a poorly repaired transport plane, ordering the assault ship to take off in front of everyone. The assault ship could transport them over Egypt in just one hour, but they couldn't do that—this assault ship wasn't designed for infiltration. The Emperor was certain that the skies above Egypt were already swarming with Kree reconnaissance units, and such a high-profile entry into the impending war zone was extremely dangerous. Although the Kree didn't care about the Emperor's army, viewing it merely as a resistance force formed by Earthlings, the appearance of machinery far ahead of its time would inevitably arouse their suspicion, contradicting the Emperor's tactics.

No one knows how the Kree discovered the potential of the human soul, but the Emperor had long concluded that the Kree may have obtained information about the "First Advent" by tracking the Celestials.

The Kree have been trying to recreate the biochemical experiments of their creators. Earth was certainly not the first subject of these experiments, but it was the most unique one. The Celestials conducted ecological experiments on more than one planet; no other planet besides Earth became the graveyard of eternal mechanical life forms, the true gods of the physical universe.

The death of the Celestials was a major event for all intelligent races in the universe. Every capable race sought to find the Celestials' graves and claim a share of the true gods' legacy. The Kree, in particular, were eager to obtain the Celestials' legacy and use genetic engineering to advance their race.

However, the legacy of the Celestials has been shared by the entire Earth.

The first arrival polluted Earth's ecosystem. No one knows why the Celestials, these purely inorganic life forms, were polluted by an outer dimension, causing the decaying organic matter to enter Earth's ecological cycle and create many monsters written into myths.

Agamotto recognized early on that the human race possessed immense psychic potential, and the legacy of the Celestials was integrated into the genetic code of every living being on Earth. As human civilization gradually gave rise to primitive worship, human thought stirred up waves in outer dimensions, creating extradimensional entities of varying strengths. This was unimaginable for other extraterrestrial civilizations, as the human population at that time was insufficient to create psychic entities. This was known as the Age of Gods, where psychic magic was the power of the gods. The etymology of magic in later generations derives from these mythological deities, who wielded supernatural power as naturally as breathing.

Agamotto also foresaw the fate of the human race. It's difficult to say that Agamotto's will wasn't present in the agreement reached between the Earth Gods and the Celestials. The Emperor, who held the same beliefs, also approved of Agamotto's ideas at the time. From then on, the gradually subsiding psychic waves from the outer dimensions caused psychic phenomena on Earth to gradually decrease, and the gods gradually perished, leaving only the ancient gods who were powerful enough to barely survive.

During this journey through the Himalayas, the First Sorcerer Supreme shared a great deal of information. As the most powerful spellcaster, Agamotto's mind was not limited by the physical distances of the universe. He projected his consciousness onto the distant Kree homeworld of Hala, extracting intelligence from the minds of the Kree nobles.

It is said that the war between the Kree Empire and the Skrulls has reached a stalemate, with Kree casualties becoming unacceptable. Few of the lower-ranking, pink-skinned Kree males remain fit to fight. However, the situation is not yet unacceptably dire. The Skrulls at the front are suffering defeats, and the ever-increasing projected costs of producing slave soldiers have significantly diminished the importance of the slave soldier program.

Furthermore, the Kree nobles behind the war were engaged in a new round of political maneuvering, and the military's sudden rise made many established political forces in the Kree Empire feel threatened. This may be why the Inhuman slave soldiers were ultimately not truly adopted.

Upon reaching the Sinai Peninsula, the assault transport ship immediately dove downwards, using the electromagnetic interference generated by friction between its bow and the atmosphere to evade detection. Then, with astonishing maneuverability, the transport ship glided towards the sea. Inanna could even see through the window small boats carrying supplies departing from the port of Elidu, skimming the coastline. However, the traveling merchants responsible for transporting supplies could only feel the fierce winds overhead, completely unable to see the massive aerial fortress.

"Where are we going?" Inanna asked curiously.

"The Brotherhood of the Shield has built several underground strongholds, storing ample supplies there. We will use those strongholds as command posts, relocating them periodically to avoid attacks by the Kree headhunters." The Emperor, clad in armor seemingly cast from pure gold, exuded increasingly intense psychic energy as they drew closer to Egypt, to the point where static electricity seemed to emanate from the air. He used a spell to influence everyone who saw the ship, erasing the image of the assault transport from their consciousness, which would then be replaced by something they could comprehend. They might see a flying bird or a rapidly moving cloud, but they would definitely not see this aircraft.

"The army of Elidu will raid the Kree research bases. The Headhunters will realize this is an organized counterattack, because the Egyptians have never possessed so many metal weapons. The Brotherhood of the Shield will lead several ambushes against the Headhunters, inflicting losses on them. They will certainly choose to consolidate their forces and protect their most important research facilities, which will be our best opportunity to launch an attack." Commander Constantine of the Royal Guard spread out a map, his metal-wrapped fingertips pointing to the Kree research bases marked on the parchment scroll. "I will lead the Royal Guard in separate operations, leading the army and the Egyptians to attack these seven research institutes. Only a swift enough operation and sufficiently heavy losses will force the Kree to subconsciously gather their armed forces, including Kree headhunters and slave soldiers."

"This process will not take more than seven days," the Emperor added. "If the battle lines are drawn out too long and the fighting becomes a stalemate, the Crees will break out in small groups. Constantine, I authorize you to exercise supreme military command."

"I will make good use of every soldier's life." The commander of the Imperial Guard nodded.

"Then what are we doing here?" Inanna frowned, looking at the approaching coastline outside the porthole. "The Royal Guard should be able to kill all the Kree."

"The Celestials, as they are called, require the souls of intelligent beings as nourishment. After the Second Advent a million years ago, the Celestials sent servants, shaped into human form, to Earth to correct experimental biases. These immortals were created by the Celestials using the souls and bodies of countless Homo erectus. Perhaps they are not entirely loyal to the Celestials, but their instincts cannot resist their commands—about six hundred thousand years ago, a civil war broke out among the immortals. They left Earth and established colonies on other planets in the solar system. The colonies were also destroyed by the civil war, and only a few of the original one hundred immortals survived. These survivors returned to Earth, forgetting the true purpose of the Celestials," the Emperor said. "There is an immortal in Egypt today, but we do not know where it is."

"You mean, there is an immortal god in Egypt who can walk on the earth?"

"As far as I know, Mount Olympus has made pacts with several immortals, who exercise power on behalf of gods who cannot leave Mount Olympus. Some of the Old Gods attempt to use these immortals to create faith in the mortal realm and prolong their own death."

The Emperor's tone was filled with disdain, whether from Mount Olympus's tolerance of these immortals or from its attempt to circumvent a loophole in the Second Advent Protocol from a million years ago, was unclear. He waved his hand, signaling the assault transport to open its rear hatch. This aircraft, piloted by genuine artificial intelligence, despite carrying only a subroutine from the Immortal City, possessed enough intelligence to understand the Emperor's meaning. The Emperor, holding Inanna's hand, led her to the slowly lowering hydraulic hatch. Sunlight and a gust of wind gradually poured into the cabin through the opening, and herds of migrating wildlife along the coastline raised their heads in terror, trying to spot the terrifying predator roaring overhead.

“I can’t guarantee that a similar situation exists in Egypt, so it’s not just the Kree who are our enemies; perhaps the Immortal is too.” Diana brought out three dark gray cloaks, and the Emperor picked one up and tied it around Inanna’s neck. “Before the Guardian Order’s raid begins, we must visit the Immortal, without attracting anyone’s attention. Hopefully, it will remain silent until our final battle with the Kree, and ideally, it can provide clues about the advanced technology created by the Immortals.”

"What if the immortals refuse?"

"Agomot believes that the immortals might have a positive impact on the human race, but I don't think so." The Emperor's voice was exceptionally clear in the gale. "I must obtain the genetic technology of the immortals. This is my first attempt, until I find all the immortals on Earth."

I can resume high-speed updates now, but I will update more short stories, some of which are just ideas, and some are supplements to this book.