Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 209 A Painful Choice (First Update!)

The sorcerer accepted the café waiter's request for a photo, which was to be expected; walking around in armor on the street was certainly intriguing enough. It was fortunate of his skin color, otherwise, the fact that he was carrying a sword would have surely stopped him. Salomon's eyes weren't on the camera, but frequently glancing outwards. He wasn't looking at pedestrians, but at two ravens—Odin, the Allfather, certainly wouldn't have casually sent his heir to Earth; sending the two ravens from his throne as eyes was perfectly reasonable.

What puzzled Salomon, however, was why these two crows were perched near Stark Tower. Did the Allfather foresee the outcome? Or did the Allfather know of travelers from parallel universes and intend to extract information from them? Salomon carefully recalled the whole affair—according to the Sorcerer Supreme, Frigga was heartbroken because Loki had fallen into the World Tree, so she used magic to search for Loki's whereabouts. Loki sensed Frigga's surveillance when he obtained the scepter, but refused to communicate. When Frigga told Odin about this, Odin believed it was a hallucination caused by her grief. It wasn't until Heimdall saw Loki appear on Earth with the scepter and steal the Tesseract that the Allfather sent Thor to Earth to resolve the matter.

There are so many suspicious points in this matter, Salomon thought, stuffing a sausage into his mouth. It's too deliberate, the Allfather's deliberate act—Queen Frigga is a highly skilled spellcaster, and she once sat on the Allfather's throne, which he claimed to possess the ability to know the past and future. Odin would never doubt the accuracy of Frigga's prophecies. But it wasn't until Heimdall saw Loki appear on Earth that Odin took action, as if he could let things develop unchecked. Thinking this, Salomon felt he had found the culprit: the Sorcerer Supreme. If Frigga's magic was merely prophecy, then the Sorcerer Supreme's magic was the ability to foresee the future. For such a matter concerning the Nine Realms, the Sorcerer Supreme must have communicated with the Allfather.

This means that the Allfather was aware of the multiverse travelers' appearance, and the Sorcerer Supreme likely informed Odin of their location and purpose. The case is solved! Salomon took a big bite of his sausage—the Sorcerer Supreme was known as the riddle master of the magical world; even something like this required Salomon to ponder for a long time before he could solve it.

After finishing his hot tea and snacks, Salomon left the café and sat down on a bench near Stark Tower. This was the location he suspected multiverse travelers might appear in, and he couldn't wait to see what it was that could traverse parallel universes. The technology involved was unrealistically advanced, and the idea of ​​traveling between parallel worlds was incredibly appealing to him—it was the ultimate project he had set for himself. Now that the opportunity to explore the multiverse was before him, Salomon was absolutely not going to let it slip by.

He believed the Sorcerer Supreme would support his actions, because the Sorcerer Supreme had stated that his destiny was no longer controlled by any being. Although part of his future was predetermined, he still chose the ending he desired. Therefore, Salomon chose this day—to complete his ultimate task and freely travel between parallel universes.

"I've already helped you, Nick Fury," Salomon said, clutching his phone. "This is no longer my concern."

"Did you already know what happened to the Colcentr's Guild?" Nick Fury seemed somewhat agitated. "Agent Romanoff told me about your magic... if you..."

"GH325, a Kree corpse. Okay, shut up, you can't act that kind of sadness. Get to the point, or I'm hanging up."

"Tsk, you little brat, just how much do you know!" Nick Fury grumbled a few times before abandoning his act and getting down to business. "Stark and Captain Rogers went your way, along with Thor and two of my best agents. Yes, I know where you are, the cameras caught you," Nick Fury said. "Stark thinks Loki is likely going to Stark Tower. You got there before them, why didn't you go check it out? If you see Eric Sullivan… Jane Foster's mentor, remember to stop him. Only with his help can Loki open the portal. Please stop him."

"No." The sorcerer squinted, looking up at the bright blue sky. Then, he vanished from sight of ordinary people; invisibility magic rendered Nick Fury completely unable to track him, only able to roughly estimate his location through communication signals. "No," he repeated, "I'm not some hero, don't you understand?"

"But if this continues, many innocent people will die! We don't even know if we can defend against the alien army!"

"You guys won't do it, and neither will your party, but this matter will be resolved."

"Your goal... is to open the portal, right? Why?"

"It's all so you ants picking up crumbs on the ground will look up, Nick Fury." Salomon leaned back on the bench, enjoying the rare direct sunlight in the towering skyscrapers of Manhattan. "Don't play innocent. Didn't you suppress my journalist friends' reports about the Asgardians' arrival? Besides the high-ranking officials of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which other country knows about the Asgardians? Nick Fury, I know what you're thinking. You want to keep those anomalies away from ordinary people's lives, but the situation is different now. You can't hide the existence of aliens just like that. Do you want humanity to die in its infancy, completely ignorant?"

"No matter what, this matter has nothing to do with ordinary people."

"This is simply reaping what you sow. Without some kind of impetus, human society would have met its end in internal strife, and then it would have been irreversible." Salomon stretched, his eyes half-closed. He watched as a stream of flame propelled Tony Stark toward the top of the building, and said slowly, "We don't have time, Nick Fury. A greater danger is approaching from space. This is just an appetizer; we must be prepared."

"Is this your idea?" Nick Fury paused for a moment. He said, "To use the blood of ordinary people to sound the alarm for the world?"

"That's not just the blood of ordinary people. My stance has been clear from the beginning. I know what those tycoons and government officials will think, but anyone who hinders human unity will die by my hand. You're no exception, Nick Fury. If you also refuse the invitation to the future, you'll be on the death list."

"I understand." The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. said in a cold tone, just like Salomon's attitude.

"But don't worry," the sorcerer said. "I've done my best to minimize casualties, because these aren't the people who deserve to die. I'll go find those who do deserve to die one by one later."

"How are you going to resolve this?"

"Well..." Azure energy shot into the sky, shattering the clouds. This magnificent sight made all passersby stop and look up, thinking it might be another invention by playboy Tony Stark. However, what happened next horrified them, because the blue energy tore open a huge hole in the sky 50,000 feet above Manhattan, revealing the vast universe on the other side. Countless restless Chitauri piloted small flying vehicles and swooped down from the sky—first dozens, then hundreds. People on the street could only see tiny black dots, like ants, falling like snowflakes. No one was prepared; it all happened so suddenly.

Salomon hung up the phone and stood up. The shoulder and breastplates of his silver armor began to deform, a neck guard made of magical metal clung to his throat, and continuously extending steel plates covered his chin and face. A helmet shaped like a dragon's face covered his head, with eye slits resembling a dragon's mouth. This armor even concealed Salomon's long, curly black hair—it was the armor of the Sorcerer Supreme, now worn by Salomon.

He reached out, and the Chitauri piloting their aircraft towards the ordinary people crashed into a huge, fleeting, orange-red shield of sparks. As they scrambled to their feet, dazed and confused, Salomon, standing conspicuously in the middle of the road, became their target.

"Of course I released the beast; that guy's been anything but peaceful." Salomon muttered as he drew his longsword, twirling it beside him. Holding the sword with both hands, his knees slightly bent, he silently vowed: I'm a knight now; I can't let anyone discover I'm a mystic!

"Alright, now it's your turn, crawlers."

Ask for a ticket~

I hope you can find some joy during your painful commute.

(End of this chapter)