Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 288 Baal's Proposal (First Update! Requesting Recommendations!!)

"You should have signed that contract, Solomon. Now that your name is gone, the contract isn't so powerful." The old woman spat at Solomon. "You could have overthrown that high and mighty Jehovah. Belial wanted you to do it, Mephisto wanted you to do it, and I wanted you to do it too. Sheba favored you; she was the will of the entire Abyss. Umbral was destined to serve you, and that bitch Lilith even dreamed of being your queen. You could have been the king who ruled Hell and the Abyss. We were determined to seize that throne, but you backed down. Coward! Get out! I'm not that soft little boy Phoenix. Don't even think about making me obey!"

"That's all in the past, Marduk." After the initial surprise, Salomon's expression returned to its usual demeanor towards extradimensional beings. "I am not devout to any person or god. My faith does not belong to any deity or demon. I am a human." He placed his hand on the old woman's shoulder. "Transfer your will back, or I will cast a spell to banish you."

"You know this won't work." The old woman sneered at the sorcerer. "She's a foolish woman, her soul is too hollow. I can control her with little effort. My son is as weak as his mother. Even if you banish me, I can return after you leave, and then you won't know where I am. Let's have a good talk, Solomon—tell me, what exactly did the Ancient One instill in you to make you like this? You seem even worse than you were two thousand years ago."

Salomon glanced at the devil, then turned and helped up Damon and Anna, who were both throbbing with headaches. "Get out of here. This is private time. Including you, Dr. Hastings. I've told you I won't guarantee your safety. If you want to die, don't do it here. I'm very experienced in handling corpses."

Anna gripped the sorcerer's hand tightly. Salomon patted it gently, indicating he would be alright. Anna glanced at the old woman with fear before taking Damon, the most affected member, from the sorcerer's arms. She left the ward with Dr. Hastings and her brother, closing the heavy iron door behind them, leaving the sorcerer and the demon behind.

"Baal, I no longer need to choose that path. I have other options." After everyone else had left, the sorcerer turned back and said to the old woman possessed by the demon, "It's not that one-eyed alien who's still in the future. It's that I myself don't want to be trapped in the multiverse."

"You still want to abandon the seventy-two demons, don't you? You're going to do what you did in the past again. No amount of loyalty can keep you here, no amount of power can make you stay. Hell wants that position, the abyss wants it, all the dimensions want it, but you don't want it. I think Phoenix doesn't know this. That crying and noisy little brat, only it has always been loyal to you—no wonder you summoned it first."

"Perhaps you should be looking at looks. I needed someone to take care of the kids, and Phoenix was perfect. To be honest, he's much better looking than you." Salomon sat down as if an invisible chair were beneath him. "You didn't want my life because I tracked down your offspring, did you, Baal? I want you to tell me what Mephisto gave you."

"That's quite amusing, Solomon," the old woman laughed heartily. "So you're going to clash with Mephisto again? Of course, of course, I'm looking forward to it; you've always hated Him. But make no mistake, I still want your life, that's for sure. Also… I don't like you interfering in my children's affairs, Anna. She's a gifted child, and I don't mind her being your lover. As for my son… oh, I've never seen such a terrible person. Perhaps this woman drank too much red wine while pregnant with him. In any case, don't interfere in my affairs, Solomon."

"Heh, what do you think?"

"Who exactly did you bring here? That thing has never been this agitated before." Damon sat in his office chair, clutching his forehead, feeling as if a hammer was relentlessly pounding into the veins in his brain. Before Salomon arrived, the old woman was unresponsive to anything except Damon's presence. After many years together, Damon had found a way to briefly awaken his mother's demonically suppressed soul. But now it seemed all that effort had been in vain, for the demon's will had surfaced, and his mother's soul was nowhere to be found.

However, Anna had no time to answer his question; she was watching the situation in the ward through the camera.

"That bastard seems to know him." Damon, not waiting for a reply, continued, "They seem to know each other very well... Did you hear what that devil called him? Solomon! His name is so misleading. If he really is King Solomon, then that devil must have been one of his former subordinates!"

“It seems his workplace relationships are a bit strained.” Anna couldn’t hear Salomon and Marduk’s conversation through the camera; she could only see them talking face-to-face, so the specifics were unknown. “He found me, not me finding him.” Anna glanced at her brother. She remembered how Marduk had described Damon—weak, just like her mother. Anna glared at the terrified Dr. Hastings—“But I believe him,” Anna said. “We can only believe him. Our power is useless against that devil, we…”

Dr. Hastings seemed to snap out of her daze, setting down the rosary she had been clutching tightly. "I can't let him stay with that devil any longer." She stood up unsteadily. "Your mother's condition is worsening. He's not like you, Damon, he's a genuine wizard..."

"You're not going anywhere." Anna shoved Dr. Hastings into a chair, the chair legs screeching. "I don't care what you think. Damon and I derive our power from that devil. I don't care what your faith tells you. She's my mother, and I have the right to make decisions. Shut up, Damon!" Anna pointed at her brother, who was about to stand up. "You grew up listening to foolish women. Do you really think your faith can purify your blood? We are children of the devil; that's an inescapable reality."

"Dr. Hastings wants to help her..."

"She can't do anything, so why not let the professionals do it? Or is she trying to heal herself with her own methods—the Bible, psychology, prayer, and asceticism? Damon, when will you wake up! Our mother... she doesn't have much left, she is the devil herself!"

"What happened?" Gabrielle Rossetti rushed into the office carrying a cardboard box. The lovely novice nun looked flustered. "I heard a lot of patients screaming... What happened?"

Dr. Hastings glanced at the screen—they had lost the surveillance footage from inside the ward.

Anna ignored the stranger. She and Damon peered through the office door into the ward area and sensed something. Right there, it was the call of their bloodline… This power, accompanied by madness, spread everywhere, and many patients who were already mentally unstable immediately began to have seizures. Seeing Anna run out, Damon followed her, ignoring his headache.

"Hiss—" Anna immediately withdrew her hand from the iron door, which was scorching hot, and the small observation window was also blocked. They couldn't see what was happening inside.

"Let me do it." Damon pulled Anna behind him, his brow furrowed as he stared intently at the iron door. Under his force, the bolt began to tremble slightly, then the vibrations increased in frequency and amplitude. Finally, the iron door crashed down, and a plume of hot, sulfurous smoke billowed from the room, engulfing Damon, Anna, and the Doctor and the nun who arrived later.

"Cough cough—cough—" Damon burst into the sweltering room before the smoke had even cleared, waving his arms frantically. Once the smoke had dissipated slightly, he saw scorch marks on the wall. It was the image of a three-headed dragon. But Damon had no time to care about that; he rushed to check on the unconscious old woman lying on the bed.

Anna looked at Salomon with a question in her eyes.

"Negotiations failed." The sorcerer shrugged nonchalantly, hiding his scorched right hand behind his back. "I rejected your father's offer. He wanted you to be my mistress, but I'm already married... well, although the engagement party hasn't even taken place yet..."

Anna rolled her eyes at Salomon.

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(End of this chapter)