Reborn as the God-Emperor in Marvel

The Ancient One was always generous with Solomon, and though she was similarly benevolent to her other disciples, she didn't hesitate to show Solomon the darkest parts of Kamar-Taj. 

Just like shadows that exist beneath the sun, Kamar-Taj was not an entirely "righteous" organization.

"Now you've seen it—the price of magic," the Ancient One said as she led Solomon into a secluded courtyard. There stood numerous ascetics draped in red robes, their bodies covered in white ash. Their skin was marked with unimaginable boils and deformities, but the pain and itching they must have felt didn't affect their expressions. They remained calm, chanting softly. 

"They believe in magic, so they willingly bear its cost for Kamar-Taj. To be precise, they bear the cost for me... But how will you pay your bill?"

"I think using spell components is a fine idea, Master," Solomon responded, doing his best to suppress the nausea rising as he observed the festering boils and wounds. He tried to breathe shallowly to avoid inhaling the stench of decaying flesh. "You know that the knowledge granted by my stigmata is rather special, but I believe I'll be able to pay off my debt without ending up with... unusual bodily changes."

"During World War II, there was a sorcerer named Monar who is still alive today—you may meet him someday. For every girl he saved from the Nazis, he had to drown a rabbit on his way home," the Ancient One said as she folded her fan and tapped it against Solomon's head. "The cost of magic isn't always physical deformity. It could be something else—like your emotions, your loved ones, or your passions. No one knows what their bill will be, and it can't be offset by spell components."

"I've paid my price, and one day, you will pay yours."

Following her words, Solomon realized that stepping onto this path meant he had already started paying a bill. Perhaps it was Jezebel's life, or maybe something else—he wasn't sure, and neither was the Ancient One.

As for the final ring, the Ancient One urged Solomon to retrieve it soon. She even provided him with a map and... a book?

Solomon flipped through the book, and near the end, he read a passage: 

_"A new grave was dug next to an old sunken one, and the two shared a tombstone. On it was inscribed: A patch of black earth, a red letter 'A'."_

This was a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the greatest American Romantic novelists of the 19th century. The black earth referred to in this passage came from Hawthorne's hometown, Salem.

This land, known as New England, was where the Puritans first settled after landing from the ship _Arbella_, founding Salem and later building the city of Boston. It was from here that a steady stream of Puritans arrived, including Hawthorne's ancestors.

Salem was also the site of the infamous Salem Witch Trials, where the religious fervor of the time led to mass hysteria and persecution. Hawthorne's ancestor, Judge John Hathorne, was one of the presiding judges during the trials.

But today, Salem has turned "witchcraft" into a selling point, capitalizing on its dark history to promote tourism. There's even a Witch Cemetery in the town, and the town's association with the occult and mysticism only deepens. During Halloween, the town overflows with strange celebrations of witches and demons.

Salem even has a Witch Museum, albeit a small one. Solomon sat in the museum's center as the walls lit up in sequence, displaying scenes from the infamous witch trials.

For most, the Salem Witch Trials were a dark chapter of religious persecution. But to Solomon, there was something else—an indescribable stench of twisted magic lingering in the land. Though faint after so many years, it suggested that there had been more than mere hysteria at play. Perhaps the girls accused during the trials weren't ordinary at all, though many innocents had been caught in the religious fervor.

Solomon and Wong's attire did not attract much attention in Salem.

As mentioned before, the town was steeped in an atmosphere of mysticism, and its present-day residents were not the fervent believers their ancestors had been. Many tourists came daily, hoping to connect with Salem's witchy past. Seeing a few people dressed as wizards or witches was commonplace.

"So, where's the ring the Ancient One mentioned?" Wong asked, glancing around and eyeing every ring on the tourists' hands, trying to spot something out of the ordinary. "Oh, look, this one moves?"

"What's moving?" Solomon asked.

"The map, of course." Solomon pointed to the map in his hands, where a red dot marked the ring's location. "It's time to meet some of the descendants of those Puritans."

"You mean the ones descended from those crazy fanatics?" Wong clenched his fists. "Remember the Ancient One's teaching: we cannot reveal magic to the common folk… So, that means fists are still the best option."

"Wong, you can't even cast a Ring of Raggadorr yet. If not for the spells the Ancient One devised to use our own internal magic, you wouldn't even qualify as a sorcerer." Solomon raised his head, comparing the map with the real-life buildings around them. "And don't forget—this is America. They have guns."

The Ring of Raggadorr was one of Kamar-Taj's most basic defensive spells. It manifested as two magical shields, one orange and one red, depending on the intensity of the caster's magic. Structurally, the spell was simple, but it was often the first "real" spell Kamar-Taj students learned after obtaining magical power.

"Okay, okay, so what now?" Wong's chubby cheeks were full of impatience, jiggling slightly as he spoke.

"We'll use magic, dear Wong," the young sorcerer replied. "We'll wait for our target to show up. Did you bring any money?"

The Ancient One had sent Wong along with Solomon not just because Wong hadn't signed a contract with the Vishanti yet, but also because Wong was one of the few Kamar-Taj disciples who wasn't so rigid.

Most other sorcerers, when they encountered rogue magic users, would rush to confront them, often without the skills to back up their bravado. Years of protecting Earth had made many of them arrogant, unable to respect ordinary humans. In reality, the most dangerous threats were typically handled by the Ancient One herself, while the lower-level nuisances were left to Kamar-Taj's other sorcerers.

In simple terms, the Ancient One was a legendary-level sorcerer, while most of Kamar-Taj's regular disciples weren't even level 10. An unexpected bullet could easily end the life of any Kamar-Taj sorcerer—except the Ancient One herself.

The Ancient One was well aware of this issue. Over the past century, humanity had advanced more than in all the millennia before. If Kamar-Taj continued to ignore the growing power of ordinary people, it might one day face a catastrophic defeat. Wong was one of the key disciples the Ancient One was training to broaden his perspective, and both he and Solomon were meant to learn from this experience.

___________________

Read Ahead

[email protected]/Mutter