Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1733 The Prophet Enoch

Natasha Romanoff had not seen Agent Coulson and Agent Melinda May for a long time.

To be precise, she hasn't been seen since the Battle of New York in 2012. She was one of the few members of the Avengers who knew that Agent Coulson was still alive, and keeping this secret from the other Avengers members wouldn't have been difficult, since the Avengers' and Agent Coulson's teams didn't have overlapping missions.

"You've gotten old, Coulson."

Natasha Romanoff waved to Melinda May beside her, completely ignoring the guns pointed at her back. Ever since Dinah brazenly drove the extended Bentley into the base, SHIELD security personnel had surrounded it. If it weren't for orders from the director, they would have already opened fire on the car; after all, this was a military base, and forcibly breaking into a checkpoint was a federal felony.

"You looked so young when you were at the Lighthouse base. What have you been through in just a few months?" Natasha asked. She waved her hand behind her back, signaling to her maid, who was in combat mode, not to be so tense. "Relax, Diana. I don't think your master wants innocent blood to drip on the ground."

Natasha carefully observed Agent Coulson and Melinda May standing opposite her.

They looked like they had suffered from severe malnutrition and a hard fight; their skin was in terrible condition, and Agent Coulson had several wrinkles and shallow, healed scars on his face.

The same applies to other agents, including Leopold Fitz and Gemma Simmons from the research team. If it weren't for the lack of obvious signs of sunburn or frostbite, Natasha would have had reason to suspect that they were on a long-term mission to the Middle East or the Arctic.

"You'll have to ask him!"

Melinda May crossed her arms, her eyes fixed on Salomon behind Natasha. Even the usually mild-mannered Gemma Simmons wore an expression of rage, let alone the others. Melinda said viciously, "He orchestrated a kidnapping targeting all of us!"

Natasha Romanov gave him a questioning look.

"Your mission is very important. I've taken many measures to ensure your survival. In addition, I rang the 'doorbell' and brought a gift; it's a matter of courtesy." Salomon straightened his cuffs and the wrinkles in his suit trousers from the bumpy ride, casually pointing to the armed agents around him as if the guns were children's toys.

Dinah defiantly pushed her way through the line of fire, shoving the La Marzocco coffee machine case she was carrying into Fitz's arms. Fitz clearly remembered Dinah; back at the Lighthouse base, Dinah and her sisters had maintained the exact same attitude, imprisoning them all as if they were masters, moving a whole host of luxurious belongings into the Lighthouse base.

However, the members of S.H.I.E.L.D. also admitted that the things Salomon didn't take, such as the crystal goblets with gilded rims, were a great help. After all, the Beacon Base didn't have anything suitable to serve as wedding tableware—Leopold Fitz, who had traveled from the future to the present and met his descendants, got married at the Beacon Base—and they also brought along their grandson, an overly lively and enthusiastic young man, whose mother was now pregnant in Gemma Simmons' womb.

It has to be said that this was a truly wonderful experience.

The La Marzocco coffee machine did little to quell the rage of Coulson's squad. Gemma Simmons, a wealthy heiress, astutely noticed that the Cartier sapphire cufflinks might be worth $40. While they were all struggling to survive, Salomon was indulging in a life of luxury, fueling her fury.

"Are we going to discuss mission details here?"

"We've suffered terribly because of your mission." Daisy Jensen, AKA Quake, couldn't help but raise her voice. If Daisy Jensen had met Black Widow before the mission, she would have blushed and been too shy to speak, because her entire impression of Black Widow came from fanfiction about her and Black Widow.

But now she wouldn't panic over such trivial matters; she's a seasoned agent.

Although she already knew the mission was necessary, that didn't stop her from wanting to punch the culprit in the head. This feeling intensified after Gemma Simmons secretly told her the price of Salomon's outfit and jewelry—why should someone be able to wear a custom-made suit and Oxford shoes and enjoy Michelin-starred service while they were mining and eating cockroach nutrient blocks?

That's not fair! Why didn't he do the task himself?

Faced with Daisy's questioning, Salomon gave a calm reply. "We have different missions, Daisy. S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't the only one sacrificing in this world."

"We need to discuss the mission."

Just as Daisy Jensen was about to continue, Agent Coulson interrupted her. He was clearly composed and not blinded by anger.

He looked at Salomon, whom he had known for many years, but felt only a sense of unfamiliarity. Salomon was still wearing a well-fitting, expensive suit and understated luxury goods, but it was a completely different aura. The thoughts revealed in his dark eyes almost froze him. He felt that Salomon was just a stranger with the same appearance.

Coulson tried to push the feeling out of his head. He hadn't been in contact with Salomon for a long time, and preconceived notions would only lead to flawed intelligence.

He knew the mission was necessary; his dissatisfaction stemmed from Salomon's methods. However, Coulson also felt that if Salomon hadn't acted this way, they certainly wouldn't have undertaken such an outrageous mission. Such matters were indeed inappropriate to discuss in public, but Daisy's anger was understandable.

She endured the most torment among the mission squads chosen by Salomon and the immortal Enoch.

In the eyes of the Kree, Inhumans were entirely assets, devoid of any personal rights, not even privacy; they were monitored even when using the toilet. If it weren't for her overwhelming and uncontrollable abilities, and the fact that the Kree faction that spearheaded the Inhuman experiments didn't hold political power, the Kree who controlled her might very well have used her as a breeding ground to restart the Inhuman slave soldier program.

"Enoch is still at the base; he will also be attending this meeting," Agent Coulson said.

"Very good." Salomon nodded and walked straight through the crowd. "I look forward to seeing the Prophet again."

Natasha Romanov was very curious about the meeting.

She had no idea why Agent Coulson's team had moved from Lighthouse to Los Angeles, and this meeting—more importantly, the mysterious mission Agent Coulson's team was undertaking—might just solve that mystery. Surrounded by security agents, the group entered the base's conference room.

There, Natasha Romanov saw the so-called immortals.

A middle-aged man with a blank expression and no hair on his head was already waiting there.

"Prophet," Salomon said politely this time, "it's been a long time."

He spoke in ancient Greek, with a pronunciation completely different from modern Greek, so no one present could understand him.

"Three thousand years have passed since the daughter of Helios guided us to this meeting." Enoch nodded, this being his most intense expression of emotion. He knew that Salomon before him had already time-traveled. Before Salomon departed, he had taken control of the Lighthouse base and arranged a time trip for Agent Coulson's team.

Strictly speaking, the meeting thousands of years ago was the first time Enoch (the past) met Salomon (the future).

At that time, Salomon's experience of time was not linear. When he took control of the Beacon Base, Enoch (in the future) already knew what Salomon (in the past) wanted to do. This was something they had agreed upon thousands of years ago—Salomon went to the past, and Agent Coulson's team went to the future—Salomon wanted to maintain history and eliminate events caused by other dimensions altering time that could lead to the extinction of humanity, while Agent Coulson's team in the future wanted to determine the cause of humanity's destruction, with the best outcome being the complete elimination of interference from other dimensions.

"Helios's daughter is still alive," Enoch said, inviting Salomon to sit at the other end of the long table. He said expressionlessly, "She lived on the East Coast of America for many years."

"I know she's in America. We were both in the French Revolution, and she sailed to Massachusetts when Robespierre was sent to the guillotine."

"Circe lost her memory because of magic." Enoch's tone remained as calm as ever.

Salomon suspected more than once that Enoch had deliberately disabled the facial expression function. As an android who came to Earth from Cygnus 30,000 years ago, Enoch had been with the human race for even longer than he had, and perhaps disabling this function helped reduce the pressure on data storage.

"She'll remember eventually." The prophet took out a small box and opened it. Lying on deep black velvet was a dagger carved from white bone with a lion's head. "I want you to give her this treasure of Helios, to awaken her, and to help her break free from the spell."

"Why do you think I would interfere in the affairs of the Eternals?"

"She bore your children; she is very important to you."

Salomon looked Enoch up and down. "You've developed a human side. You never used to bring up things outside of missions."

"Fitz is a good man, he's doing well now." Enoch nodded. "My performance hasn't been affected."

"I'm glad to see this change in you, Prophet. You're more human than your kind, and that's far more important than trivial matters like performance." Salomon spoke to Enoch, the others completely unable to get a word in edgewise, as they couldn't understand the language. Perhaps the conversation was being recorded, but that didn't matter; he simply didn't want S.H.I.E.L.D. to know what they were saying right now.

At the other end of the long table gathered former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Agent Coulson served everyone a cup of coffee and began explaining to the still bewildered Natasha Romanoff. At least before the meeting began, they needed to be on the same page—Agent Coulson knew he couldn't hide much from his former colleague, Black Widow—since she hadn't actively inquired about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current secrets, he didn't mind revealing some information related to Salomon.

Natasha Romanoff listened as Agent Coulson recounted this bizarre story.

Salomon left after imprisoning them at the lighthouse base, and Enoch, following plan, controlled them using a device invented by Howard Stark. Then Enoch brought in a large white boulder with three red stripes.

S.H.I.E.L.D. once possessed a similar black boulder.

The liquefiable boulder was a portal leading to a planet where the Inhuman King Hive had been exiled (Natasha stated she knew nothing about this, and the 084 item was not mentioned in the S.H.I.E.L.D. files she released). The boulder Enoch has now brought is a portal to another dimension, possessing almost identical characteristics.

Before they regained consciousness, the white boulder was triggered, and the liquefied white boulder immediately engulfed them.

"And then, we arrived on Earth in the future," Agent Coulson sighed. "To be precise, in outer space, where humans live like cockroaches on alien space stations. I'm talking about cockroaches now; the creature the word refers to has changed significantly in 2091, and I wouldn't be surprised if these creatures survived until the end of the world."

That was an extremely difficult time.

Earth was torn apart by immense force, its core cooled, and vast amounts of debris floated in orbit. Before the catastrophe, an alien fleet, guided by a human traitor, arrived on Earth and abducted a large group of humans. In the era of Agent Coulson's time travel, the surviving humans were forced to break rocks in space stations, searching for valuable ores for the Kree.

Compared to the humans of 2091, Coulson's team was not much better off.

Gemma Simmons was captured by the Kree, implanted with a hearing-blocking device, and became a high-ranking servant to entertain Kree dignitaries; Daisy Jensen and other Inhumans who gained superpowers through the Terrigen Mist suffered even more tragically, being captured by the Kree and sold as cargo to various factions throughout the universe; and even more unfortunate was Fitz. The liquefied white monolith, however, failed to engulf him, forcing him to lie in a stasis pod with Enoch's help, awaiting awakening by Enoch decades later.

As for the immortal Enoch, Natasha didn't ask, and Coulson assumed she already knew a lot of information from Salomon.

"The Kree installed a controller on me, embedded in my nerves." Daisy pointed behind her ear, glaring angrily at Salomon not far away. "They didn't use anesthesia when they took it out, they didn't even disinfect it."

Natasha easily sensed that they were hiding a lot, such as the atmosphere between Leopold Fitz and Gemma Simmons. She had no intention of digging deeper; although Agent Coulson had always advocated for a different communication mechanism than the former S.H.I.E.L.D., some secrets were better left unrevealed.

"I've obtained quite a bit of information, which might be useful to you." She glanced at Salomon, who was talking nearby. Noticing her gaze, Salomon nodded—he had revealed a lot of information to Natasha to avoid wasting his breath explaining it to Coulson and the others, and his nod indicated that she could reveal as much as she wanted.

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"We have found the human traitor who is connected to the Kree."

Melinda May, arms crossed, asked, "Who?"

"This is not information I can disclose. I can only tell you that the man has been arrested."

"That's good news," Coulson nodded. "Anything else?"

"There's a faction within the Kree Empire that spearheaded the Inhuman experiments. The Kree leader you mentioned, Kassias, is likely a descendant of this faction. According to our investigation, this faction has weakened significantly within the Kree Empire, and only one family remains. If all goes well, Kassias's direct relatives are currently on their way to Earth."

"We know about this," Coulson said. "It was to be expected if the Kree lifespans weren't ridiculously long."

Natasha said with a hint of barely perceptible pride, "This time it's different. That Kree is no longer a raider; he came to Earth as a prisoner. Salomon launched a war on the edge of the solar system, a war that wiped out the Kree outposts and captured a giant space station and many ships."

This news is indeed astonishing. S.H.I.E.L.D. could never have guessed that a war had broken out at the edge of the solar system, and that it was a human-initiated attack on aliens. Historically, in conflicts between humans and aliens, humanity has always been forced to assume a defensive role; no country in the world has the capability or even the inclination to launch a proactive attack.

"You mean, the future is different now?" Daisy Jensen crossed her arms. "Cassias doesn't exist anymore?"

"I don't know. The information I have isn't that detailed." Natasha spread her hands. "Perhaps that Casais's mother is already pregnant. My information isn't that detailed."

"What will this lead to?" Coulson sat up straight, placing his hands on the table as if to grab a pen to jot down this explosive news. "If Kassias is gone, will other Kree target Earth?"

"Whatever the outcome of this war at the edge of the solar system, it won't be worse than the Earth being torn apart."

Natasha noticed a change in the agents' expressions.

Daisy Jensen moved her lips as if to say something, but Melinda May stopped her with a look. But it was too late; Natasha Romanoff had already set her sights on her. The Black Widow's intelligence sensitivity far surpassed that of Daisy Jensen, an untrained agent.

"You've found out who destroyed the world, haven't you?"

"That information isn't very credible." Coulson tapped the table to prevent Daisy or any of the other young agents from letting it slip. He didn't want to reveal such important intelligence before understanding Salomon's stance. "We'll continue the investigation; now we need to understand something more important."

"Don't worry, he's not a supporter of Project Insight."

"I don't know what you mean, Natasha."

Although he said that, Agent Coulson secretly breathed a sigh of relief, finally putting his mind at ease.

Since Black Widow said so, it means Salomon wouldn't kill someone based on vague information like "Daisy Jensen might destroy the world." Nick Fury believed Salomon was the same kind of person as him; they would never hesitate to nip a threat in the bud. Now Coulson felt that his boss might be mistaken; Salomon wasn't a complete pragmatist.

If Salomon really wants to do this, no one and no weapon combined in this base can stop him.

"The information about Salomon is outdated now," Coulson thought.

Nick Fury once believed that Salomon's mind was far more dangerous than his physical strength. Upon first experiencing the threat of Salomon's power, Coulson concluded that Nick Fury could only say this because he always managed to escape to places where no one could find him, making it impossible for Salomon to point his gun at him.

"He's hostile to Inhumans, Nat," Coulson said, switching to a more intimate form of address. "His friendship with Daisy hasn't changed his attitude."

"I can assure you he won't turn against S.H.I.E.L.D. here," Natasha Romanoff said with a smile, pointing to the coffee machine beside her. She'd always been wealthy, but she'd never before tasted coffee made by an $8000 machine. "Now, can he have a cup of S.H.I.E.L.D. coffee?"

Watching Natasha Romanoff's retreating figure, Melinda May whispered, "She's a little different, Coulson."

"You mean, she wasn't wearing combat gear?" Coulson shrugged. "Nate wears casual clothes too."

"I think the same way as May. Perhaps you know more about Black Widow, but you're not a woman."

Gemma Simmons also came over and carefully examined the famous Black Widow's outfit.

Natasha wore a white, form-fitting pencil skirt and high-heeled sandals, her long, loose red curls cascading down her back, exuding charm. She responded to Simmons's gaze with a beautiful smile. As the only S.H.I.E.L.D. agent present who knew about luxury goods, Gemma Simmons listed the prices of the outfits.

The 1998 Dior haute couture piece by John Galliano is so expensive that even money can't buy it. The high heels alone cost over $14,000. Add to that diamond earrings, a Cartier bracelet, and a pearl and platinum tassel necklace, and the total is about a quarter the size of Salomon's cufflink.

Although it may not sound like much, these clothes and jewelry are clearly not like cufflinks, which can be passed down for hundreds of years. Even 90s retro Dior haute couture would not be put in a washing machine or dry cleaner. The only fate for these clothes is to be incinerated or covered with a dustproof plastic film and put into a closet.

"More importantly, she's in love," Simmons sighed. Perhaps due to her pregnancy, Gemma Simmons was extremely sensitive to emotional expressions. She saw Natasha Romanoff hand her a coffee cup, her fingers gently stroking Salomon's arm—an extremely intimate gesture. And her eyes, so viscous they were almost palpable.

"How long has this been going on, sir? Their age difference is over 10 years..."

"You should listen to what Enoch says; Salomon is now thousands of years old," Melinda May added. "When he was still a child, Nick Fury thought he was an eternally youthful old wizard. Now that conjecture has come true."

Agent Coulson gasped, glancing sharply at Natasha's retreating figure, and made a guess.

However, this speculation concerns Natasha's privacy, and he cannot disclose it to anyone else.

"I don't know, I haven't been in contact with her for a long time."

"Then the veracity of the information she provided is questionable," Melinda May said coldly. "The meeting shouldn't last too long; I still have tasks to complete. Do we really need to tell them about the haunted lighthouse base?"

"He's a magician, so I guess he already knew. If he didn't, Enoch would have told him anyway."

Coulson picked up his cup and took a sip of his now-cold coffee. It tasted fantastic; the steamed milk foam was rich and creamy, and the coffee beans had a full-bodied flavor—worth the expensive price.

"Compared to the Vatican's exorcism rituals, he's the real professional in this regard. Let's wait for him to bring it up." He raised his glass. "Besides, he even gave us such delicious coffee. I think we should forgive him, shouldn't we?"