Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 688 What exactly happened? (First update)

She was certain she was going to die, because she knew she was sinking into the dark ocean floor, with phosphorescent creatures roaming around her, and something slowly dragging her down into the endless abyss.

The icy seawater filled her lungs, the stagnant air feeling like heavy lead weights in her chest. She could hear her own heartbeat, but it sounded incredibly distant, as if her heart was still beating on the surface of the sea. She suspected she was already dead, and the heartbeat was just a hallucination; otherwise, she would be flailing her limbs, struggling to cough up the water. But nothing happened. She sank to the bottom like a marble statue, her limbs cold and heavy, unable to bend even a finger. Though she couldn't see, her sixth sense reached out, touching the creatures swimming around her—slippery, deformed fish, swimming silently, their degenerated eyes staring maliciously at her flesh. They were waiting for her death, so they could tear her flesh with their jagged, sharp teeth and devour the sweet entrails of warm-blooded creatures.

"This will hurt!" she thought. She remembered the books she had read, those precious literary works buried in libraries, the knowledge that only nobles could learn after her teacher appeared. She was certain that no poem in the world had ever depicted the other side of death. Not sacrifice, tragedy, and passion, but the stench of a person being dissected like a fish at the moment of death, blood and excrement mixed together.

She felt that her death would be ugly.

Damn it! I'm not wearing any clothes! She only then noticed. Well, nobody saw me anyway. I'll be dead soon, the only witnesses will be a bunch of ugly fish, there's nothing to be ashamed of.

But soon, her sliver of optimism faded with time. She couldn't judge the speed of her fall, nor could she keep track of time. Whenever she started counting, the whispers from the seabed would distract her, muddying her mind. She tried chanting incantations to help herself, but to no avail. She sank deeper and deeper, growing more and more desperate, even the hideous creatures around her were disappearing, the faintly glowing, transparent mollusks vanished without a trace. She felt black tentacles rising from the seabed wrap around her limbs, gripping her neck tightly.

She only had one method left to try.

Sunlight pierced the water's surface like molten gold. She suddenly realized she had never opened her eyes; the blinding light cast bright spots on her eyelids. She remembered—she had never sunk to the bottom of the sea. "Huff—" Wanda sat up in terror from the bathtub, her long, wet hair plastered back, warm water droplets quickly cooling and sliding down her face. She gasped for breath, blinking rapidly to squeeze out the water, but the steam in the bathroom made it difficult for her to see what was happening. She knew who was standing not far away; she sensed his presence, as if he were announcing his identity to her. Wanda didn't cover her body, even though the one seeing her was a man. "Teacher, I…"

Salomon removed his fingers from the light switch.

"The circuit breaker tripped, and then I heard you calling my name." Salomon leaned against the bathroom door, holding a tray. Wanda smelled the aroma of food. He walked towards the naked Wanda, then knelt down beside the bathtub, showing her the food on the tray. Wanda smelled an ambiguous scent on him—when she woke up in the unfamiliar bed, the maid who had been waiting there had explained everything she needed to know, such as where she was, who had brought her there, and what was to be done with her. Her sixth sense detected the blush-inducing screams coming from not far away, and the intense emotional turmoil made her immediately understand what had happened. Blushing, she obediently accepted the maid's suggestion to take a good bath, change her clothes, and greet the owner of the house cleanly.

"This is a small portion of your breakfast." He placed the tray within Wanda's reach on the shelf. "In this house, breakfast is served in two parts. First, have some sweet and sour fruit and some fried sausages. If you still have an appetite, you can come with us to the dining room for some meat."

"What happened last night?" she asked.

"You're too tired. I forgot that kind of work is a bit difficult for you. You carried too much negative emotion and then you passed out." He smiled. "Don't look like that, Wanda. You did a good job, you just lack experience and haven't been able to filter out too many useless emotions. Here's something to cheer you up: you've missed the morning practice at Kamar-Taj, which means you don't have to practice martial arts today."

"That's somewhat good news," Wanda said, sitting in the warm water and popping a sausage into her mouth. Salomon had already left the bathroom, leaving her alone to try and recall what had happened last night.

"Was this the place he came from last night?"

"Yes, sir." The agent nodded, continuing to direct the excavation team and instructing the accompanying researchers to investigate the scattered skeletons. Sam scratched his head. He'd sensed something was wrong the moment he entered the woods; the chilling, eerie atmosphere permeating the bushes constantly irritated his skin. "Perhaps Salomon was just taking Wanda Maximov for a walk here. I don't know much about young people, but for a while they liked these spooky places. We can't prove those skeletons are related to them, can we?"

"Don't play dumb, Sam," Agent Hill's voice came clearly through the earpiece. "You've seen that part of the data. It's not complete, but you know the connection between Collins and Salomon. He didn't just revisit for a stroll. If that's the case, why didn't he eat at the harbor restaurant? This is the last month he can eat Maine lobster!"

"Perhaps that's the truth, Agent Hill. He just ate a bit too much and then came here for a walk."

"Why are you deceiving yourself, Sam?" Agent Hill sounded angry. "Didn't you see the bones?"

“I saw it. All I know is that after Salomon arrived, the murders and disappearances that had plagued Collins for thirty years stopped in a very short time, and haven’t happened again since.” Sam laughed angrily, though no agent saw it. “I will continue your mission, but don’t instill any more anxiety in Pietro, Maria, he’s just a child. At the same time, I won’t let the agents access things they shouldn’t know. If you want to know those things, talk to Salomon yourself; maybe he’ll take pity on you and tell you.”

Are you angry?

"Yes, I'm furious." Sam lowered his voice. He walked to the scattered shallow crater and the yellowed, deformed skeleton, his eyes fixed on the wounds on the bones. "These aren't ordinary human remains. I don't believe my agents can handle this. If you still think this is S.H.I.E.L.D., where you can squander agents' lives at will, then let me tell you, no, absolutely not."

"Don't you want to know Wanda Maximov's current situation? Don't you want to know Salomon Damonette's true intentions?" Agent Hill was also somewhat annoyed. "If he really intends to overthrow a country and kill certain people, what are you going to do?"

"I'm not a secret agent, I'm just a soldier." Sam rolled his eyes. "I'll stop him, but until then, this is a free country. I don't like him, but from what I've seen so far, he used to be a hero here, dealing with cannibalistic monsters in the countryside, and then yesterday he just used it to brag to girls."

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(End of this chapter)