Solomon tried to keep himself as busy as possible, so he wouldn't think about the death of the Sisterhood's artificial human. He had grown very fond of Katherine, that lively artificial human whose personality programming seemed to have a slight flaw—she was always cheerful, often doing hilariously foolish things. Even though he regarded the close-knit Katherine like a daughter, he couldn't express his sorrow the way the girls of the Sisterhood did. Instead, he buried his emotions in work, study, and preparations for the next war.
Of course, he knew about Katherine's performance during the Finbowen Special Ops battle. As a soul born from his own soul and the Philosopher's Stone, Katherine was inherently influenced by the Stigmata. Even if her body died, her artificial soul would continue to drift in the Sea of Souls, lingering beside his soul projection. He had conducted experiments himself—he could use necromancy to communicate with Katherine or use a 4th-circle spell, Spiritual Guardian, to summon her. However, Katherine's presence and even the strength of her spirit depended on when and to what extent the Stigmata was activated; under normal circumstances, she couldn't remain in the physical world indefinitely.
The reason he attempted this was because he had failed to activate the backup body he had prepared for Katherine—her soul couldn't be drawn into the substitute body using the spell formations. This outcome deviated from his original assumptions; he hadn't expected his own soul to exert such a powerful pull on an artificial human's soul. Without the activation of the Stigmata, the only way to keep Katherine's soul in the physical realm for long periods was to use the Philosopher's Stone.
He had already given the fragment of Aether particles to Tita, to be used as one of the Sisterhood's ultimate weapons. Tita had inherited the alchemic body originally intended to serve as Katherine's backup vessel and sealed it in the Sisterhood's vault, making it the anchor for Katherine's voluntary descent into the material plane.
He had also fully disclosed the results of that experiment to Tita. Now, only a few high-level members of the Sisterhood knew how to activate the magic on that Philosopher's Stone to summon Katherine. The Sisterhood needed some solace, too. Solomon agreed to Tita's request to replenish their ranks, scaling up the recruitment program significantly. Although this would come at a considerable cost, Solomon didn't mind—not just because of his great tolerance for artificial humans, but because it also served to strike the Clinton family's human trafficking routes from Europe to the East Coast of North America, which perfectly aligned with the next strategic phase of the Eternal City.
Deploying a sky battleship to attack human-trafficking gangs and mercenaries was serious overkill.
However, before Tita's unit departed, Victoria Hand would carry out a counterintelligence course for the commanders of the Sisterhood.
With more and more people being recruited into the Eternal City, it was inevitable that spies would try to infiltrate the organization. Even among the rescued girls of the Sisterhood, there was a high chance some might be enemy plants. Therefore, every department had to start preparing for counterespionage. Currently, the primary counterintelligence target of the Eternal City was the CIA—Langley headquarters didn't know the true identity of their opponent, but based on the pattern of operations, they could deduce that this organization had long been targeting drug smuggling routes from Afghanistan to the U.S., as well as human trafficking routes from Europe to the U.S. To uncover the truth, cover up evidence, and avenge the attack on Langley headquarters, the CIA would almost certainly send agents disguised as victims to infiltrate the Eternal City.
The pretext? That this organization had ties to Hydra—a reason that worked just about anywhere these days.
But the CIA probably never imagined that the Eternal City really was connected to Hydra—and in a very intimate way.
Through Gideon Malick and the secret society to which the Malick family belonged, Solomon could make intelligence one-way transparent to the CIA, just like Hydra once did with S.H.I.E.L.D. And since most of the CIA's recent efforts had gone into spreading disinformation and funding dissident groups, their combat strength was far inferior to the CIA of the Cold War era. So, this training would be more dramatic than dangerous. But no one else knew that. Apart from Victoria Hand, both the Sisterhood and the scientific departments truly believed that spies had infiltrated the Eternal City.
Solomon wanted them on edge to prevent real issues from arising in the future. The Eternal City wasn't some fly-by-night outfit—it was a warlord state with weapons of mass destruction. If spies infiltrated it, the consequences would be catastrophic. Relying solely on the Honor Guard to secure everything around Solomon was not enough; everything needed to be formalized, including the establishment of strict counterintelligence protocols and mandatory enforcement across the board. The next step was to check whether Natasha Romanoff was available—Solomon needed her help to build a comprehensive counterintelligence system that would work in tandem with the Honor Guard.
The Wakandan delegation agreed to this approach after only minor objections.
Princess Shuri, using her clearance, accessed most of the information on the Finbowen battle. She saw firsthand the role played by the Eternal City and the enemies they were about to face. After that, she no longer objected to Solomon's militaristic ambitions. This science-worshipping Wakandan princess began seeking another path—trying to uncover information about the Panther God, Bast, through Wakandan and neighboring tribal mythology. She had no idea that the little black cat who liked to lounge near the Ministry of the Interior and occasionally spit up milk was actually something else entirely.
"Don't chase after those things, Shuri," Solomon kindly advised the Wakandan princess. "That's not a path you should take."
"You want me to give up the truth in front of me? That's impossible, Solomon. I'm a scientist. It's my duty to understand what I don't yet comprehend."
"Whether it's science or magic, they both lead to the same place. Pursuing knowledge too intensely is not without danger," Solomon said calmly. "If you complete the laser cannon you're working on, even seemingly powerful extradimensional beings won't be able to resist that kind of firepower. If one cannon isn't enough, then build ten, a hundred—that's the power of technology. It's the path that both I and the Ancient One endorse. Magic is merely a shortcut for a select few, not the standard answer. Those who walk that road face risks that the other path would never encounter. If you can't withstand those risks, then I'll have to kill you—just like the apprentices who died in Kamar-Taj. Prepare yourself. We're on the verge of another war."
Shuri raised an eyebrow. "When? We just finished an insane war. A whole mountain collapsed!"
"I don't know. That depends on how prepared the Eternal City is. But allow me to remind you—the enemies we face in the future will possess technology far superior to what's found in human society on Earth. They'll be highly organized, and every high-ranking member will be both battle-hardened and well-educated. We won't be able to rely solely on decapitation strikes to achieve our objectives. We'll have to conquer and occupy. As much as I despise those bastards, I have to admit they've achieved remarkable feats in genetic science. In this entire war, neither the environment nor the quality of our troops will favor us. This will be the most difficult enemy we've ever faced."
"I saw the mission you assigned—low-gravity environment testing. Is our enemy based on some small planet?"
"On the Moon, Shuri," Solomon said with a grin. "Don't carry too much mental baggage. While some of them with traces of alien genes still resemble humans, the majority of the Inhumans have lost human form due to genetic mutation. I can show you what they really look like through divination spells using a mirror—you'll see exactly what kind of creatures those Inhumans have become."
(End of Chapter)
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