Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 637 Post-War Summary (Second Update)

Bayonetta kissed her pistol, her pale grey eyes turning to the arcane mage. "My dear little deer, are you ready to be hunted?"

His plan to take Stephanie or the witch to the restaurant he had just acquired for money laundering fell through. The sorcerer hurriedly dressed, kissed the witch, and promised to return in a few hours. He would never miss their evening and morning intimacy, never. Amidst a hail of bullets, Salomon, wearing the antlers the witch had prepared for him, passed through the portal and arrived at the administrative building of the Immortal City.

Stephanie screamed and crouched down as a bullet pierced the portal and shattered the hall's beautiful stained glass.

Still shaken, Stephanie quickly explained the situation to Salomon.

"Please remind me next time you come from the battlefield."

"That's hard to say, everywhere is a battlefield, my dear Stephanie."

They rode an elevator adorned with gilded vine patterns to the top floor of the Gothic building. The power structure of the Immortal City was as clear and direct as the building's floors. At the very top were the Office of Internal Affairs and Salomon's office, connected by Stephanie's personal office, which served as the oracle's communication link to the entire power structure. On the surface, Stephanie was Salomon's restrainer, but in reality, Salomon, as a dictator, had any order that passed unconditionally through Stephanie. Stephanie's role was not that of a think tank but rather a messenger.

"Agent Coulson wants to speak with you, my lord." As someone who knew part of the truth about the Sokovia incident, Agent Hand naturally knew that Salomon's current power was enough to effortlessly destroy a government. Out of awe, she unconsciously changed her form of address for Salomon. Agent Hand, clad in light bulletproof armor, looked serious. Behind her was a support team dispatched by the Sisterhood to the intelligence department. They not only carried the most powerful individual combat weapons in the Immortal City but could also request ballistic missile strikes; a single team could overturn a small-scale, high-intensity war.

In the holographic projection, the face of the Hand agent appeared somewhat blue.

"You might remember the female hacker in Coulson's team. She gained superpowers, specifically Inhuman abilities. From the information we have, Skye's power appears to be shockwaves, though the mutation mechanism is still unclear. Her mother, Jia Ying, is the leader of the Inhuman settlement 'Afterlife'—" Agent Victoria Hand hesitated slightly, "—After Commander Gonzalez's death, Skye betrayed Coulson's team. Now she's fled with the Inhumans of 'Afterlife,' and we don't know what happened unless we directly capture Skye's mother. Only then can we possibly get the details from her. Furthermore, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s only remaining carrier has also been attacked by Inhumans, and the situation is currently unknown. Agent Weaver has been out of contact for over twenty minutes. I plan to request a portal in five minutes and lead a combat team to provide support, while also taking in those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Before you consider speaking with Agent Coulson, I'd like to know your current stance on S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I don't care, Agent Hand. I just saw Nick Fury yesterday. Coulson may already know about the recruitment of past S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but that's irrelevant because even Nick Fury himself doesn't care. S.H.I.E.L.D. belongs to the past and has nothing to do with the future. I'm keeping them around only because there's a destiny that Agent Coulson needs to fulfill with his life. He won't die before that, and neither will those connected to that destiny. It's your decision, as long as they don't get in the way."

Agent Hand breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, my lord."

"But I want to see a special agent, not an emotional vigilante. Also, your intelligence department played a crucial role in the Ultron incident, not only guiding us to shoot down the spy satellite but also mobilizing many forces outside the organization. You will be rewarded, Viduria Hand, and your achievements will be recorded in your file. Transfer Coulson's signal over here."

"Yes, my lord."

"Good morning, Agent Coulson. Or perhaps good afternoon or good evening, you can choose for yourself."

"Salomon, I implore you to remain calm. According to the intelligence May brought, the Inhumans seem to believe that Gonzalez fired first." Agent Coulson's tone was extremely humble; he almost begged Salomon not to act. He knew the inside story of the Sokovia incident; Agent Maria Hill had already told him, and he didn't believe those Inhumans could withstand Salomon's magic.

"Are you sure Commander Gonzalez struck first? My intelligence tells me that Gonzalez went with good intentions. Gonzalez was human, but the Inhumans thought they were superior to humans, and then he died. That's the truth, Coulson. I know what kind of person Gonzalez is; in fact, I even recruited him—Immortal City had contact with many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents during the Hydra rebellion, and after the mutiny on the carrier was suppressed, Commander Gonzalez led his combat team into the battle at Tri-Wing headquarters."

"Let's figure out what happened first. I still don't understand many things. I sent four Quinjets, and Agent Morst disappeared with them. I can't even get a signal. One of the Quinjets that arrived in [Afterlife] attacked the Inhumans on its own and then vanished," Agent Coulson said, his face full of worry. "It's all a conspiracy, Salomon. I beg you to point your sword at the enemy, not your friend."

"I'll rely on Victoria Hand's intelligence for my consideration." Salomon turned off the video call, unwilling to communicate further with Agent Coulson. He and Stephanie had much work to do—such as the placement of the orphans who volunteered to come from Sokovia, whether to train them alongside the orphans Laura Crawford brought from Syria; what to do with the staff in the server room who had been exposed to magic, whether to include them in the Mars Foundry project; whether the information department should be expanded and its equipment updated; the maintenance and replenishment of the Sky Carrier; the maintenance deadlines for the Sisterhood's power armor and weapons; intelligence department funding; the list of strategic weapons maintenance personnel…

Salomon quickly reviewed all the documents Stephanie had handed him and provided instructions based on the actual situation. After finishing with all the documents, he asked Stephanie to retrieve Laura Crawford's file and applications.

Laura Crawford was once again in the London tabloids, the unscrupulous media mocking her as "as lost in her own fantasies as Sir Richard Crawford." Anyone in the know understood that her two expeditions had yielded nothing but a few trinkets; there was no evidence that she had actually found Kit City. It wasn't that Salomon disagreed with her publishing her paper on the Undead Prophet and the Lost City; rather, Laura Crawford herself destroyed her nearly completed work. She didn't intend to publicize her near-magical miracles, knowing the chaos it would cause the world—Salomon owed her another huge favor. To this end, Laura Crawford even grabbed Salomon by the collar, demanding the sorcerer give her a mysterious historical site—one unrelated to magic, monsters, or aliens—so she could publish a proper paper.

"You want to give her a historical site? Do you need an engineering team to build it?"

"No need. Laura Crawford will probably never publish an archaeological paper in her lifetime, because she'll never be able to escape the connection with mysterious ruins." The sorcerer flipped through Laura Crawford's schedule, made a face, and said, "Look at her, she has no intention of resting at all. She's planning to go to South America again next year."

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(End of this chapter)