Marvel Magic Case Files.

Chapter 70 An Unexpected Choice

Loud noises echoed from the deep valley. Besides the sounds of petrified angels crashing to the ground, there were also the sounds of ancient buildings collapsing.

The setting sun, which should have lingered on the western horizon for a while, suddenly disappeared, replaced by a full moon rising in the sky and dense dark clouds. Salomon was momentarily disoriented, thinking he had misremembered the time.

He quickly realized—time here had been artificially sped up, and sunrise and moonrise were completely out of sync with nature. Every night, the sunrise and crescent valleys would be filled with lightning and thunder, and the temperature would plummet. Left with no other choice, Salomon had to lower Pegasus's flight altitude to avoid dying from a lightning strike due to his own foolishness.

Such a scene wasn't anything to be alarmed about; anything could happen in the world of magic. What intrigued Salomon was what, or what kind of magic, had caused this situation. The valley exuded an eeriness, seemingly isolated from the outside world, its natural order operating as if switching between day and night with the touch of a few buttons. Even the endless mist and the thunderous roars across the clouds didn't appear to be naturally formed.

Of course, Salomon couldn't draw conclusions based on this phenomenon alone, since he didn't feel like he had traversed any demiplane. However, seeing the statues of the sage and the witch in the distance was enough to tell that this scene must be related to the magic of those two races.

The sorcerer thought to himself that now was not the time to ponder these things; if he was interested in this kind of magic, he could explore it later. Right now, the serpentine, inspired angels were flying off in one direction, while other angels, such as those of love and decorations or cached and compassion, seemed to have lost interest in Salomon and were no longer chasing him, as if they had more important tasks at hand.

This gave Salomon a small sense of relief.

The Inspired Angels' flight path led to the Sage Statue, but Salomon didn't see them return. Previously, Ceresa had appeared at the Sage Statue's winged platform, and at that time, neither Bayonetta nor Salomon had shown any interest in searching those structures. But now, they've come full circle.

Using his eyesight, Salomon, riding on Pegasus's back, saw from afar that the enormous stones were flying up, as if a gale was enveloping the area, and the dark clouds in the sky were racing rapidly. The endless mist in the valley was also blown by the gale, crashing against the towering buildings like ocean waves.

"Pegasus, my dear friend," Salomon said, "will you still walk on hooves? We may not be able to fly anymore; the winds are too strong here, and I imagine you wouldn't want to be struck by lightning a few times, would you?"

Pegasus neighed in dissatisfaction, its clear voice piercing through the mist and thunder, echoing endlessly through the canyon. It snorted, shook its head, and flung its white mane at Salomon's face. Pegasus seemed to be disdainful of Salomon's questioning of its abilities. It was impossible for Salomon and Pegasus to be particularly close; if it weren't for Athena's command and the golden reins, it wouldn't have willingly carried a mere brat—but getting an apple was always good; such sweet treats were nowhere to be found in the Astral Plane.

The white Pegasus galloped up the steep cliffs, its wings flapping occasionally to provide lift over the gaps in the mountainside. Salomon, riding on its back, felt almost no jolt; he felt as if he were flying.

He looked up, gazing into the distance at the two enormous stone sculptures. An angel, as large as a giant, appeared there, surrounded by swirling winds and clouds like whirlpools on the sea, floating above the rocks and mist. But after a short while, the angel vanished, and the storm subsided.

"What does this mean?" Where Bayoneta stood was the platform atop the head of the sage statue. A figure in red leather stood at the other end of the platform, while a giant angel floated before her. The angel demanded, "This is the second time! Explain why you're interfering with us!"

"It's your useless henchmen who are getting in your way," Jeanne said dismissively, raising her pistol. "I will handle this matter my own way; you don't need to get involved."

As soon as Joan of Arc finished speaking, the angel vanished from the spot, accompanied by the tolling of bells in the void. Bayonetta narrowed her eyes, unable to understand why Joan of Arc would help her drive away the angel of Temperance, who, along with the angel of Fortitudo, was one of the four cardinal virtues and represented the element of wind.

"I think you've regained some of your senses since you came here, haven't you?" Joan of Arc turned to look at the witch. "Are you feeling better, Bayonetta?"

The witch adjusted her glasses and asked in a slightly joking tone, "Who are you? Don't tell me you're my long-lost sister."

"Sister? Don't joke around. You and I fought for the witch's throne." At first, Joan of Arc was a little angry, but she quickly calmed herself and pointed her gun at Bayonetta. She raised her face, a look of displeasure on her face. Deep inside, a voice kept urging her to kill her former enemy. Joan of Arc took a deep breath, trying to suppress the voice within her, and said, "Sleeping Beauty, now that you're back, it's time to continue our battle."

Joan of Arc gave Bayonetta an extremely strong sense of déjà vu. In their several encounters, Joan of Arc always managed to help Bayonetta regain some of her memories. Bayonetta, of course, wouldn't refuse such a good thing, whether from the perspective of restoring her memories or from Bayonetta's simple competitive spirit.

The witch's memory was still of Joan of Arc thrusting a sword straight into her chest. Oh, and the Fortitudo angel, and the noisy, mad-like crowd that stormed the gate. But that angel was dead; Bayonetta had killed it herself. Although she didn't know exactly what had happened back then, the witch still felt much happier after killing the Fortitudo angel.

"Are you still asleep?" Jeanne d'Arc appeared behind Bayonetta without warning, her hand steady, the gun aimed at the witch's vitals. When Bayonetta turned to face her, Jeanne d'Arc fired without hesitation into Bayonetta's eye.

The bullet whizzed close, and Bayonetta suddenly dodged, then raised her pistol and fired back. Their moves were almost identical, but this time, Bayonetta had the upper hand. After several clashes, she raised her leg and forcefully kicked Joan of Arc off the platform.

"These idiots are always meddling! But it's not so bad," Joan of Arc said with dissatisfaction. Before her, the connection between the stone platform and the statue was suddenly severed by a force. The brief pause in the gale resumed, and the massive platform was swept up by the powerful airflow, rapidly tumbling and rising into the sky. Joan of Arc, with the same competitive spirit as Bayonetta, saw this as a challenge. So she leaped from the stone wall back onto the platform. Like Bayonetta, Joan of Arc defied gravity, landing steadily on the rapidly spinning ground.

A fierce wind swept through the entire canyon, growing stronger the closer one got to the two stone statues. Had it not been for Pegasus, their incredibly powerful mount, Salomon would likely have been tossed to the ground by the gale-force winds swirling around the canyon, or perhaps even blown into the air. The strong winds still had some effect on them; Salomon and Pegasus had to squint and fold their wings to avoid being blinded by the flying debris and dust.

Through his blurred vision, Salomon saw the head of the sage statue break off and swirl in the gale. Then, the sage's head smashed into the witch's head, and the two massive stones, carried by the rushing water, crashed into the statues, shattering into a massive heap of extremely dangerous, rapidly spinning rubble capable of easily turning a person into mincemeat. Salomon didn't see Bayonetta; he only saw a lithe black cheetah leap from the ruins, crossing the swirling, howling wind and soaring over the full moon in the cold night sky.

He had a gut feeling that the astonishing magic already confirmed the cheetah's identity. But before Salomon could ride Pegasus to catch up, a portal sparkling with fire opened beside him. As he reconnected to the real world, Salomon's phone rang. But Salomon ignored the phone and turned to look at the portal.

"Salomon," Mordo stood on the other side of the portal, "The Venerable One is summoning you. And you have no time to waste."

Salomon asked in surprise, "What happened?"

"I don't know." Mordo's expression was a little strange. He said, "Not long ago, the Venerable One brought back a little girl, and no matter how we tried to soothe her, we couldn't. But the Venerable One said that as long as you go back, everything will be fine."

A little girl? Ceresia!

Salomon was quite surprised that the Venerable One knew about Seresa, but he still dismounted and retrieved Pegasus. He passed through the portal and entered the perpetually snowy headquarters of Kamar-Taj.

"The Venerable One is waiting for you in the meditation room." Mordo left Salomon with these words before turning and leaving in a hurry, as if he were busy with something. Salomon surveyed the headquarters plaza. All the apprentices who should have been training there had vanished, the library doors were locked, and all the mages seemed to have disappeared overnight.

He walked toward the Sorcerer Supreme's meditation room with a great deal of doubt, but before he could even open the door, he heard a childish laugh. It was Ceresia's voice, the voice of that crybaby that Salomon would probably never forget. Whenever he heard her cry, Salomon would exhibit corresponding stress symptoms—including cleaning and comforting the child.

Salomon went inside and saw Ceresa sitting behind a long table, holding a plush toy and a chubby gray shorthair cat. The Sorcerer Supreme was feeding Ceresa candy. The expected crying from Ceresa didn't come; clearly, Ceresa and the Sorcerer Supreme were getting along very well.

"Big brother!" Salomon's opening of the door caught Ceresa's attention. She called out cheerfully when she saw Salomon, "Big brother! Are you taking me to find Mommy?"

"Later, Ceresia." Salomon turned his gaze to the Sorcerer Supreme, who said with a sigh, "You weren't this interesting when you were little. You always stayed in your room, never laughing or making a fuss. I even thought you had autism. I'm an old man now, you have to let me find some fun in feeding cubs."

Salomon sat down next to Ceresia, patted the little girl's head, and took the short-haired cat, whose face looked utterly dejected, from her hands. He asked, "Teacher, where are the others? I saw Brother Mordo run off in a hurry. Did something happen?"

"It's not a big deal," the Sorcerer Supreme said calmly. "While you're ensuring Bayonetta follows the predetermined path, Kamar-Taj also needs to ensure Jubilee's resurrection doesn't appear before the world. You know how advanced technology is now. If satellites are pointed at Vigrid, the angels' secrets will be lost, and as a high-tech city, Vigrid attracts countless eyes and ears. Mordo and his men are preparing to cast a joint spell, opening a mirror dimension to envelop the entire city of Vigrid."

"I think my senior classmates are capable of handling this job," Salomon continued, "So why did you call me back?"

"You've forgotten Seresa," said the Sorcerer Supreme. "Remember to bring Seresa to Vigrid."

"What? That's a battlefield! No, absolutely not!" Salomon's eyes widened as if he had heard something unbelievable. His expression was extremely stiff; this was the first time the Venerable had seen Salomon so agitated. He frowned, his voice unconsciously rising, "Ceresha wouldn't last more than a few minutes there! And there are so many angels there..."

"Take her there," the Venerable One said, his expression unchanged. "That's the will of the land. Salomon, I'm afraid you have no choice."

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(End of this chapter)