Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 592 The Red-Haired Girl's Trust (First Update)

The girl's eyes were closed, her red hair wet and clung to her forehead, and specks of light, both pink and blue, flickered wildly beneath her eyelids, making her feel nauseous. In a daze, she saw her childhood nightmare reappear before her eyes—the bomb, a bomb that could explode at any moment. The fear made her tense, afraid to move, lest her breath ignite the thing that would blow her to pieces. She wanted to cry, and reason told her she had to stay away from that thing that could kill her at any moment, but she dared not. She felt as if she had a grumpy master, and she, the lowly servant, could only stay under the bed, too afraid to move. The temperature in Sokovia was very low at night; she felt as if her lungs were freezing, and her toes and fingers were numb with cold.

So many years have passed, and she is still that little girl who hides under the bed, trembling with fear.

She was breathing heavily. Her heart pounded tirelessly, making her ribs ache. She forced her eyes open again, staring at the distorted pentagram and the repulsive rune on it. This was madness, utter madness, all because of this absurd test! I don't know, I don't remember! No, no, this test was what she wanted! She had promised herself to study, to study that obscure, profound knowledge, to study the terrifying truths beyond the universe.

Her numb fingers curled slightly, the abrasions on her knuckles dampened by cold tears, the stinging pain pulling her from her reverie. She regained her composure. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs, then exhaled.

She felt completely transformed.

Just like participating in a price guessing game [Note 1], she thought. Calm down, think, don't be nervous.

Wanda's emotions shifted rapidly. Salomon narrowed his eyes, subtly withdrawing his wand from her grasp and continuing to point it at the parchment, urging the quill not to slack off. He knew the danger he was doing—he was testing Wanda Maximoff's resistance to corrupting magic time and time again, but no one knew who could stop her once she lost control. Within Kamar-Taj, only the Sorcerer Supreme and he possessed experience wielding the power of the Great Old Ones; other arcane masters hadn't studied it in depth because Vishanti forbade it, because not everyone could resist the corruption brought by dark magic like the Sorcerer Supreme. Just as Vishanti's energy could make people lawful and righteous, this terrifying energy was bound to bring madness.

That utterly vile dark magic was the only magic truly suited to Wanda; Salomon had long warned her of its dangers. Severing Wanda's connection to dark magic was unrealistic; she would inevitably come into contact with it someday. Sithon would provide her with what she needed, and Salomon couldn't keep her under his watchful eye every moment. Therefore, all of Wanda's current studies and experiments had to be conducted under Salomon's supervision. He demonstrated dark magic to Wanda again and again, and Wanda needed to control her emotions under his watchful gaze.

This is the most difficult part. Wanda's talent is too perfectly suited to dark magic; for her, using it is as easy as drinking water. Every lesson she learns is a test of her will; she must confront nightmares and death.

Extremely harsh, extremely cruel, extremely insane.

This is the price to pay for learning dark magic. The greater the power, the greater the price to pay; this is a universal truth.

When Wanda opened her eyes again, her breathing sounded distant and indistinct. The cramped cell and pale light were all obscured by a cold, grayish-white mist. She swallowed instinctively. Only then did she notice the voices of several men talking—the voices of the guards outside the cell, the voices of those she had fooled for years with the simplest of spells.

But just like her breathing, the sounds that should have been crystal clear became muffled, requiring her to concentrate to hear what they were saying. As she stood there, bewildered, a noisy, dragging, slimy sound approached her—through the cold mist, Wanda saw the creature. It was a wildly growing monster, its simple tentacles flailing aimlessly, its randomly placed eyes flashing with a frenzied light.

"The [Spirit Transformation] spell allows you to transfer your physical body to this place, which you can call [Shallow Aether] or [Limbo]. Every caster who enters here faces the same danger: these extradimensional beings that you cannot see in reality. They are the mother of the extradimensional bacteria, feeding on the emotions of intelligent beings."

The moment the voice rang out, Wanda's tension vanished instantly. Like a warm breeze that chased away all the cold, her numb hands and feet regained feeling. She thought of the warm yellow light, the dining table with its checkered tablecloth, the stew, and her noisy family. The girl smiled involuntarily and looked at her teacher.

Salomon was slightly behind. Like Wanda, he was in a spirit form, but that didn't prevent him from casting spells.

"This is the target we're looking for. Take out the small statue you prepared. According to the course, you need to turn this monster into your own spirit hunter. It can guard, chase, and attack, making it an extremely effective tool, just like the Kabbalah Twelve Sacred Sounds Golem I showed you. But the spirit hunter can be carried with you, which is very convenient."

"But it doesn't seem like it's doing this willingly at all." Wanda hadn't forgotten the spell's requirements: the recipient must be willing. Even if this kind of monster wasn't very intelligent, it still possessed the most basic instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm. "Besides, it's too ugly." Wanda frowned. "I think your golem is much cuter than this thing, especially that round stone head."

"That's because you haven't seen my past creations. The flesh golems infused with elemental spirits—those things are even more disgusting than this." Salomon subtly rolled his eyes. "Magic is just that disgusting. It's a problem with this universe; our magical origins are flawed, and it's almost impossible to solve. The spells I'm teaching you aren't that disgusting anymore. And I don't think this guy will have any objections."

He glanced at the monster trying to escape; its crazed, morbid eyes were now perfectly clear. This monster's instincts were far sharper than Wanda's; it clearly realized that it was facing a apex predator. It wanted to run, but feared that fleeing would provoke Salomon's attack, so it could only stand there, frozen in place, too afraid to move.

"I'm not planning to use this spell yet, Master." Wanda thought for a moment, then shook her head, abandoning her plan to create a spirit guardian. "Anyway, a spirit guardian isn't necessary," she said cheerfully. "Let's move on to the next step. I'm curious what you're going to take me to the depths of the ether to see. You haven't told me what a dimensional fragment is yet!"

The red-haired witch had completely let go of her tension, circling around the disgusting extradimensional bacterium. If Salomon hadn't stopped her, she might have even tried to pry open the bacterium's gaping mouth to see what was inside.

"We're just going to take a look; we won't go too far. There might be something dangerous there."

"But you won't put me in any danger, will you?"

[Note 1] The Price Is Right is an American game show where contestants can win a product by matching its price.

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)