Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 669 The Real Mastermind (Second Update)

Vision carried the last unconscious agent as he flew out of the sinking Quinjet, his tone full of apology.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save everyone. This agent's neck needs to be immobilized; I've already straightened his cervical spine."

"No, it's not your fault." Captain Rogers looked across the battlefield. The brilliant streaks of missiles streaking across the night sky were clearly visible, and the machine gun fire was like a meteor shower. Realizing that the shallow earthquake and explosions could very well trigger a tsunami, he asked Vision to take the agents to the undamaged Quinjet. "Sam, take me to the Sky Helicarrier," he said. "I don't know what they were attacking, maybe it's related to the earthquake. Now that they've won, I'm going to have a good talk with them."

"Are you sure? They look really angry right now."

Rogers chuckled. Sam had a great sense of humor; nothing could dampen his spirits. "I have to go, Sam," he said. "I want to see what they've got, and maybe bring Stark along."

After firing three basic loads of ammunition, Agent Victoria Hand ordered the gunner to cease fire.

After the order was given, logistics personnel, including those in the damage control room, rushed to the weapons compartments for maintenance. The same thing was happening on the other two aircraft carriers. Their work included maintaining the automatic loading systems of the cannons and missile launchers, maintaining shipborne weapons, and inventorying ammunition. The machine guns and main gun barrels were incredibly hot, and the electromagnetic weapons required specialized cooling systems to continue operating. Many regulations were modified from existing operating manuals, and damage control and maintenance personnel had to provide feedback during actual operations to create new operating manuals and regulations. But Agent Hand wasn't concerned with that; she cared about the outcome of the battle, because the result would directly demonstrate whether humanity's current technology could cope with future threats.

"A reconnaissance drone has been launched. Sonar buoys are being deployed; the sonar buoys are activated."

Unsurprisingly, such terrifying firepower could tear apart monsters and drones that hadn't had time to evacuate.

Victoria Hand crushed her joy; she wouldn't allow it. She wouldn't allow complacency to lead to potential failure until the results were before her. Her goal was to tear the monster to shreds, ideally breaking it down into atoms, completely eliminating any further contamination. Kasirius had repeatedly emphasized the problem of subsequent contamination—many ordinary organisms would inevitably mutate upon contact with the monster's still-active biological tissues, much like the accumulation of toxins in the food chain. If the problem wasn't completely resolved, mutations would inevitably appear in humans sooner or later.

"Sir!" A female agent from the combat reconnaissance department stood up. "A small target is rapidly approaching the Punisher. Radar detection indicates that the object's size is similar to the aircraft that approached the Sky Carrier before the start of the war."

"Shut down the anti-aircraft guns, let them come." Agent Hand glanced at the approaching triangle on the radar screen and waved impatiently. She had spotted the Avengers' Quinjet long before the battle began, but she hadn't expected them to still be alive. "Special operations teams, assemble on deck. Commander Tita, please send a heavy firepower team to the Retribution; I need the Sisterhood's strength. Arcane mages..."

“I will send a small squad of arcane mages up to the deck.” Kasirius nodded. “We don’t know how many Avengers agents have been corrupted, and Kamar-Taj will clean up any corrupted agents.”

"You can take off your blindfold now, Wanda."

"Is it all over? Where are the monsters?" The witch asked impatiently, not as a question, but as a confirmation. Her intuition told her that the madness and hunger ahead had vanished without a trace. When the shelling stopped, the entire sea did not return to darkness. High-powered searchlights mounted on the lower armor of the Sky Carrier illuminated the churning sea, and pale moonlight shone through the dispersed clouds in the distance. Dozens of small red, green, and white lights moved rapidly across the combat zone—position lights from the assault transport ships. They swooped down like ospreys over the steamy sea, dropping dazzling flares. Because the methods of combat were completely different from the existing ones, many of the Immortal City's tactics were developed by Salomon in consultation with the veterans. Only they understood what constituted a useful system and what was mere formality. The pilots of the assault transport ships were all elite pilots from the former S.H.I.E.L.D., and they also had a say in tactical planning. Even though the white steam still shrouded the sea, obscuring much of the view, Wanda could still smell the gunpowder in the scorching wind.

"Perhaps already dead. Agent Hand is doing a final check." Salomon turned off the flashing lighthouse, and Wanda felt the heat behind her dissipate instantly. "Once she confirms the kill record, this matter may be over."

"Did we prevent a massive earthquake and the sacrifices?"

"The ancient lava zone has been triggered, and natural earthquakes will occur in the future. But that's not our concern. We've already mitigated this earthquake considerably; otherwise, it wouldn't have been as simple as just a few wooden houses collapsing." The sorcerer frowned, his tone hesitant. He sensed a familiar undercurrent in the whole affair. Perhaps this matter was related to the awakening of the Eye Demon, but the evidence at hand was too limited to draw conclusions, and more importantly, the limited power of Kamar-Taj couldn't be wasted on misguided actions.

"The sacrifice was doomed from the start. Someone was giving James Boone the wrong message. The evil god he worshipped couldn't be summoned through the wrong means, and he couldn't have summoned the monstrous worm either, because that requires the involvement of many spellcasters, something James Boone's rabble simply couldn't do. Someone else summoned that monster for him," he said. "The strongest evidence is the vampire's corpse. Worms are a lower-ranking servant race, and their appearance requires a necromancy spell, which only one group knows. That means some higher power, or a cult of higher power, orchestrated all of this. I'm all too familiar with this kind of behavior—layers upon layers of misinformation that keep you running around like headless chickens. The purpose of any group being manipulated indirectly contributes to some unexpected outcome, but I didn't expect His reaction to be so swift..."

"So, in other words, innocent people still died in the earthquake? We can't stop vampires from killing, nor can we completely stop earthquakes?"

“Yes, but the number of earthquake victims is far fewer than it could have been. I’ve known since I was very young that no one can save everyone; doing so would only lead to greater casualties. We must choose one path. No one is omnipotent. Even with the noble vision of saving everyone, the dark side of magic can slip in, twisting a person’s mind and tempting the spellcaster to fall. That’s the most despairing part; we can only do our best. Your mission is over, Wanda. You don’t need to get involved in what happens next.” Salomon’s words made the witch’s face change drastically. He stopped the witch’s explanation. “It’s not that you didn’t do well enough, but I believe that the other side’s real target is you. You gained more spiritual insight in this mission than ever before, and your mental state became unstable, which is enough for a beginner. I suspect that the higher-ups’ real purpose is to make you lose control—to make your potential run wild, to make you controlled by an extraterrestrial evil god. This is not overprotection; it’s a conclusion reached after eliminating all impossibilities. We must take precautions against this in any case; it’s an indisputable procedure.”

The witch looked very unhappy.

"Come on, leave things here to Victoria." Salomon opened a portal. "Let's do something easy, like bringing back the village prophetess who escaped from Kamar-Taj, and then you go study the records of that cult that summons worms, and give you plenty of amulets."

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(End of this chapter)