Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 174 New Spell (Second Update!)

Salomon slowly sat up in bed after waking up. Although his eyes were still closed, his mind was already clear. He knew where he was and what the room was like without even opening his eyes.

The dorm supervisor had already warned him that he was absolutely forbidden from posting posters of Japanese high school girls in his room. Those posters had been replaced with a silver-green tapestry, which was part of the supervisor's private collection. Vines woven from silver threads meandered and climbed on the dark green wool, only to shyly curl up again after cautiously touching the yellow piping.

Before returning to school, he had already informed the Sorcerer Supreme and Mordo of the trap he had set. After the incident of capturing Mephisto's avatar, Kasirius set off for Canada to hunt down the cult, while Mordo was left behind by the Sorcerer Supreme to recover—Mephisto had injured his spine, and he needed time to heal. Although he could move freely, pain accompanied every step he took; for now, Mordo could only handle clerical and miscellaneous tasks.

The Sorcerer Supreme wasn't entirely satisfied with Salomon's trap, but no one knew if S.H.I.E.L.D. would scan the Book of Ebony into an electronic document. Unless they directly questioned Agamotto of the Trinity of Vishanti, Kamar-Taj had no way of knowing whether a copy of the spellbook existed; Salomon's method was a last resort. The Supreme Sorcerer had no choice but to acquiesce to this solution, instead instructing the arcane mages of the three temples to be vigilant for magical fluctuations in outer dimensions and throughout the entire Aetherial plane.

The sorcerer rubbed the discharge from the corner of his eye and opened it with a sigh. Fortunately, the temperature in Windsor wasn't particularly low in the early morning, and it was gradually warming up. Salomon could jump out of bed barefoot in his pajamas to put on the clothes he had given to the laundry room the day before. This was his fifth day back at Eton College. After returning to London from New York, he immediately found himself immersed in an endless and extremely frustrating academic life—not science classes, but theology classes. Eton had its own theology classes and chapel, which was Salomon's most hated subject.

The damned Anglican Church never lets him have a moment's peace. Every Saturday he has to go to the small chapel to pretend to sing hymns and pray, and in Latin no less. I wonder what Martin Luther's spirit in heaven would think.

He wasn't the only one working himself to the bone; everyone else in Kamar-Taj was too. The arcanists overseeing the planet's defenses had repeatedly reported to the Sorcerer Supreme that unfinished teleportation spells were constantly being cast in the New Mexico desert. But whenever the arcanists submitted requests to investigate, the Sorcerer Supreme always vetoed their requests. He instructed them to remain within the three sanctuaries, dealing with the dimensional rifts caused by these spatial fluctuations and eliminating any extradimensional beings that might be sneaking in through these rifts.

Salomon had heard about this before returning to Eton College, and after calculating the timeline, he could roughly guess what had happened. He didn't ask the Sorcerer Supreme for the reason like other arcane mages, because the upcoming battle was a trial for humanity, a time to make the proud and arrogant humans look up—as for those alien fanatics and Apocalypse enthusiasts, they were not among his conjectures.

No wonder Nick Fury didn't come looking for him; that guy's too busy right now.

Salomon brushed his teeth, his eyes half-closed, his mind wandering. He'd been back in civilian life for five days, but Nick Fury acted as if he hadn't seen him at all. Not only was Nick Fury not answering his calls, but Coulson seemed to have vanished completely, disappearing without a trace. No one else from S.H.I.E.L.D. had contacted him about Johnny Blaze and Rosanne.

Prior to this, Salomon, out of humanitarian considerations, sent Nick Fury a warning text message, informing him of the extreme risks of the experiment conducted in New Mexico. However, the arcane mage received no reply, nor did he send anyone to meet him; even Level 8 Agent Victoria Hand never appeared—a truly strange occurrence.

Wait, did S.H.I.E.L.D. really not monitor him when he entered secular society? The sorcerer exhaled foam, carefully examining his clean, white teeth in the mirror, but his thoughts had already drifted to the atmosphere. Salomon didn't believe S.H.I.E.L.D. would be careless; it probably wasn't a surprise that he encountered Coulson at that art exhibition. That was a social event for wealthy businessmen and politicians, not some tech industry expo. Such events have strict dress requirements for participants, though not as stringent as the Royal Opera House—at least sneakers are not allowed unless you're Tony Stark or Elon Musk, and Coulson and his girlfriend obviously weren't included.

Even disregarding how Coulson obtained the tickets, the price of the dress alone would be enough to drain the wallet of an ordinary agent. Unless Audrey and Coulson's clothes were bought by S.H.I.E.L.D., and attending the exhibition was Coulson's suggestion, how could a cellist who came from Portland to New York know that there was an art exhibition at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan?

Therefore, Coulson's surprised expression when he met him was entirely an act. According to Coulson himself, he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. after graduating from high school, but it seems that this agent's talent is extraordinary. He didn't even attend S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, and almost fooled Salomon by only receiving training from other agents.

However, Salomon no longer had time to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. affairs. The Tesseract was being handled by the Sorcerer Supreme, and he only needed to focus on the Book of Ebony. Therefore, he had to travel between the Sanctum every night to check the daily planetary defense system records.

The sorcerer pulled the silver key from the chain around his neck, removing it from his chest. The key, originally cold, became slightly warm due to his body heat. Salomon examined the key, something he did daily. The patterns on it fascinated him. While the patterns he deciphered couldn't yet form any magic, copying them allowed him to glimpse the endless truths of the chaotic universe—a relatively safe method of analysis. Like countless wild mages in another crystal wall system, without spellbooks, they sought traces of magic in nature, analyzing and learning them.

Although the silver key failed to provide him with the spell, Salomon understood Randolph Carter's method of recreating Salem in 1692—a spell called "Time Trap." Originally, this spell could only pull a creature through time to within five miles of the caster, but the spell cast by Randolph Carter pulled almost everyone in Salem from three hundred years ago together, and then put them back afterward, even without them realizing what had happened. No wonder he said he didn't have the power to repeat the cycle again.

According to Randolph Carter, the spell known as the "Time Portal" will be the focus of his next studies. This spell can open pathways between different eras, dimensions, and even worlds. Through this spell, true time travel can be achieved—a jump along a timeline, rather than jumping back and forth within the possibilities of time through the quantum realm.

The Sorcerer Supreme had seen this spell, but strictly forbade Salomon from using it in this timeline, not for any other reason than to prevent Salomon from disrupting the course of history. Regarding the consequences of time travel, Salomon had already witnessed them once with Bayonetta and Ceresa, with the Sorcerer Supreme using Bayonetta as an example. The Supreme Master believed that Salomon did not exist in the past; he did not exist within the closed time loop of the past. Salomon was an outsider, with little connection to past history.

Salomon was completely bewildered by these words, but he had always kept the Venerable's warning in mind. Before he figured out what was going on, he dared not use the "Time Portal" spell casually—the Flash next door had already explained what would happen if he traveled through time, and Salomon did not want to get himself caught in a time loop.

Salomon wiped his face, put on his clothes, donned his slingshot, and entered the Mirror Dimension before class began. Magic, like martial arts, requires daily practice; both muscle memory and spellcasting speed are honed over years. Newly trained spellcasters might even forget their incantations in a moment of panic, and Kamar-Taj certainly couldn't allow that to happen to his family's mystic. Therefore, he followed Kamar-Taj's training methods, never slacking off even at Eton College.

Today he needs a new spell, a completely new attempt after learning the third-circle spells he can learn. This spell will be of great help to him in the future, especially since it is safer than other spells.

This is the key point: the unsafe spell Salomon cannot be practiced without the supervision of a Venerable One.

Since he lacked a spell slot, Salomon was unsure if he had truly mastered the spell, which is why he had to venture into the Mirror Dimension to test it.

Then, a black tentacle made of shadow slowly rose from the ground in front of him.

Please vote for me!!!

(End of this chapter)