Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 261 Reverse Smuggling (Second Update)

This was a humanoid figure, entirely orange-red and radiating intense heat, with contorted limbs. It's unclear what the devils or demons were thinking, but after retrieving this soul from the River Styx, they simply abandoned it. As a result, when the Kamar-Taj contingent descended to the lower levels of Hell, this creature fell from the sky. [There isn't just one passage between the different levels of Hell; descending is like crawling through tunnels. There are countless such entrances, and the larger ones are controlled by the lords of Hell. Besides the River Styx, these are the passages to the different levels of Hell, and the sorcerers all cross them stealthily.]

"Why did he mention Stark? Who is this guy?" Nick Fury looked at the delirious soul with a puzzled expression, then a possibility suddenly occurred to him. "Does time flow the same in Hell and on Earth?" he asked. "What time is it on Earth right now?"

However, when faced with this question, every arcane mage shrugged, indicating they couldn't answer. Only Salomon weakly mentioned the time rules of different planes—for any plane, the flow of time remains constant, and time is continuous in the subjective perception of a plane traveler. However, when traversing planes, travelers will find that their objective time has increased or decreased. Therefore, it's normal to find that the time spent in Hell differs from that in the Prime Material Plane after entering Hell and then exiting.

Therefore, Nick Fury was completely unaware of this event that occurred in the Prime Material Plane, something he should have been fully aware of. Only Salomon knew some information. But he didn't voice his thoughts because they were still in Hell, and speaking out would be pointless. However, one thing was certain: Stark's mental state was definitely much better than at the same time in parallel worlds. It's just unknown to what extent Stark developed the Iron Man armor without the drive of fear.

Salomon is looking forward to seeing his work.

Nick Fury's attempt to extract answers from this twisted soul failed; the man was already delirious and numb to everything. Perhaps this was why the devil had abandoned this soul—it was filled with pain and no energy could be extracted from it. Only lesser demons would care about such trash; otherwise, no devil would let go of a hard-earned "Ding-Dong"—this soul wasn't directly corrupted, but rather one of its superiors was tempted by the devil, leading to its descent into hell—this echoes the information revealed in the previous demonic incident, suggesting that the US government harbors the devil's henchmen.

"He was a soldier." Fury listened intently to the soul's murmur, pointing to the nearly melted, oval-shaped metal plate on the soul's chest, its pattern almost indistinguishable. "That's a military identification mark. He was a soldier, and his accent was from the southeastern United States. Chad Davis, that must be the name."

"Who cares?" Salomon gestured to the sorcerer to ignore it; their mission was Mephisto, not Stark. Only Nick Fury was extremely concerned about the soul. He even used rope from his backpack to tie it up and dragged it along with the sorcerers. Salomon asked Nick Fury what he was doing, but Fury said he couldn't bear to see a soldier who had served his country go to hell; that wasn't the fate he deserved. He had to take the soul back.

Salomon, however, believed that Nick Fury simply wanted to study the soul more thoroughly, and that excuse would be more convincing if Captain Rogers had said it, as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. had no credibility whatsoever.

He reminded Fury that this soul only had a physical form while in Hell, and would be dragged back to Hell upon reaching the Material Plane, unable to stay there for even a moment. This was the ironclad rule of this world; only after the soul had atoneed in Hell could it return to the ultimate resting place of the universe to enjoy eternal peace. Until then, the soul belonged to Hell forever.

"Can a small piece of metal really bind a person's life and values? When he joined the army, he didn't even know who he was fighting for or what ideals he was fighting for. If he was fighting for the well-being of humanity, how could he possibly go to hell? I think the devil who corrupted him must be very sad, because it has completely lost out." Even though he was exhausted, Salomon still mustered up the energy to mock Nick Fury, which was a rare source of amusement for him in hell.

"He only fought for the capitalists' oil, not for the country. He has no job security after he's discharged. Capitalists don't give good benefits to their tools. He has no surplus value anymore. Last time I bought fries from a roadside vendor without draining the oil, what happened? A squad of American soldiers rushed out and pointed guns at me, robbing me of my fries. He might be one of them."

Nick Fury gave Salomon a look, letting him figure it out for himself.

The old deacon glared at Salomon, annoyed by the young man's lack of focus, but he couldn't say anything, since Salomon was needed to initiate this operation. Even with the Sorcerer Supreme's backing, the pressure was still too much for a minor—he was told to relax and just focus on completing the mission.

"Quiet down, we're almost there." The old deacon turned back with displeasure, reminding Salomon, who was walking at the back of the group, "Get yourself together, we need you."

Salomon shut his mouth with great pleasure.

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"What on earth happened? Everyone I know has disappeared!" Stark was furious, because not only Nick Fury had vanished, but Salomon had also disappeared. Captain Rogers didn't know Fury's whereabouts, Agent Romanoff couldn't contact him, and Stark had even secretly called Salomon, hoping to get some information through divination magic, but he got nothing, because Salomon had also disappeared.

School has already started, but Salomon hasn't gone to school at all. His adoptive mother has only submitted a long-term leave application! Stark is not giving up and went to Salomon's apartment again, but only the android opened the door. Salomon's legendary live-in girlfriend was nowhere to be seen.

He visited Happy again today. Happy's condition was very bad, extremely bad; if it weren't for a mysterious drug delivered by Agent Hill, Happy might have even died in his sleep. Stark felt the bottle of medicine looked very familiar, because the packaging had a distinctly Salomon style—of everyone Stark knew, only Salomon still used corks and glass bottles to package their medicines.

His friend Rhodes had approached him once, and the U.S. military was willing to provide Stark with asylum. But Stark could easily guess what those high-ranking military officials, who couldn't even handle terrorists, were thinking. They were definitely trying to use this incident to persuade him to hand over the Iron Man suit technology. These people hadn't given up yet, and the Battle of New York had only intensified their thirst for the Iron Man suit.

These people have already started reaching out even in Nick Fury's absence.

Stark would never agree to such a thing, and Roddy was extremely worried about Stark's safety, so the two parted on bad terms at Happy's bedside. Back at the villa, Stark suddenly remembered that it was actually Pepper's birthday, and he hurriedly went to buy her a gift.

Without Happy's help, and with Jarvis unable to move things, Stark had to do everything himself.

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"Hmm?" The rested group of arcane mages encountered another incredible event: yet another soul had descended from the sky and landed near Mephisto's territory. This soul was in exactly the same state as the previous one, Chad Davis, which made Nick Fury anxious.

He disliked being blind to reality.

"When will this end?" he asked the slow-moving old deacon with some impatience.

"This is just the beginning."

I'm so sleepy. I was originally going to write this together with the first update, but I think I'll split it up and post it separately.

I want to sleep, I want to be lazy, I want to take a day off!!!

(End of this chapter)