There was no one in the world more supportive of Agent Coulson's efforts to eliminate Hydra than Solomon—but his support came with a condition: it had to happen after Stephanie had seized the Hydra heads' assets. In the hands of Hydra, those assets were mere tools for power struggles and lavish lifestyles. But in Solomon's hands, the financial digits that once danced in market speculation would be transformed into tangible factories, mines, and laboratories. Stephanie's enterprises under his direction had even slightly alleviated unemployment in the U.S. and parts of Europe. Every talent and every resource would be stockpiled as future wartime reserves. Solomon himself had minimal personal expenses.
Swapping meaningless figures in financial games for concrete steel, coal, oil, non-ferrous and precious metals—this was, for Solomon, a supremely worthwhile trade. Only gold, in his eyes, counted as true currency. Art belonged to appreciation, not to commodity; scientific knowledge should be given to those who seek it, not locked behind paywalls under the guise of "knowledge monetization." Still, if Coulson ever wanted to crack down on Wall Street, Solomon promised he would fully support it.
Morally speaking, Solomon's methods were undeniably cruel. His stance toward the Inhumans was cruel. His treatment of wealth-hoarding elites who contributed nothing was cruel. Even his views on the idle and wasteful were harsh, utterly devoid of sentiment. This cold, lawful logic might not be the most optimal solution, but when viewed from a broader perspective, few could argue against his results.
But ordinary people simply couldn't comprehend his perspective—his thinking was too far ahead. These were not thoughts a human should possess. Even Nick Fury, who also claimed to stand for "humanity's interests," often found Solomon's unfeeling methods difficult to stomach. Who knew—perhaps Fury regretted not institutionalizing Solomon when he was young.
It wasn't about right or wrong. It was about perspective.
On another note, Solomon's striking appearance and vast knowledge made him incredibly charismatic—something Stephanie had noticed keenly. No matter who he spoke to, regardless of status or occupation, he always knew just how to add humor. He never thought of himself as special. Even being a weapon forged by Gaia, the Earth Mother, only meant he could do what others couldn't—nothing more.
At this point, even Agent Coulson couldn't object to the cooperation proposal. Their goals were perfectly aligned: Hydra. List, Bloom—those Hydra agents were already in Coulson's notes, though still hiding in the murky depths. Trying to apprehend them directly would inevitably hit political roadblocks. With S.H.I.E.L.D. gone, Coulson could no longer arrest politicians with impunity.
So yes—he needed Agent Hand's help. At least, for now.
Unless, of course, Coulson discovered that the man in front of him was the most powerful Hydra head. Which—technically—wasn't entirely incorrect. The conservative faction of Hydra had already been converted into Solomon's Ministry of Internal Affairs. Stephanie, having shed her old faith, no longer was Hydra. She simply kept connections with former Hydra heads. Now, she belonged to something else entirely—not to the superstition, greed, and cruelty of the old Hydra.
Solomon left Agent Victoria Hand and her team at the base and departed alone from Coulson's "secret" facility. He was busy—so busy that all he could bring for Skye was a well-worn old book from his dimensional bag. Sadly, the high-school-educated hacker had no idea how important that book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, truly was for her.
Especially given her current state—her organs mostly unaffected—the book's exploration of tension between intuition and intellect was perfectly suited for her. Even if the rational mind understood that her new powers were harmful, the feeling of those powers could overwhelm reason. Solomon didn't like preaching, so he used the book as a gentle nudge.
Regrettably, she mistook it for some boring academic tome.
Without proper tools for storing blood samples—negative energy preservation was unreliable, and cryo-magic too cold—he had to hurry back to the Eternal City to preserve it at the proper temperature. Seeing Maya Hansen's reluctance, he simply opened the fridge and placed the sample inside.
"Just take a look, Maya. It won't take long," he said. "This concerns the future."
The head of the Bio Lab sighed.
"Fine," she muttered, waving him off irritably. The thought of temporarily halting her Genetically Modified Soldier project filled her heart with frustration. She removed her glasses and stared at her toes. "I'll spend a day on it. Whatever the outcome, I'm returning to my work."
"That's enough. Thank you." Even faced with a grumpy employee, Solomon remained gentle. Maya Hansen was well-paid, but money didn't matter to her—she wanted knowledge. And Solomon had knowledge in abundance. "Next, I'm heading to the inner plane," he said. "I'm curious what the coordinate brought by that Golden Guardian actually points to. Whether it's a spell or a symbol, it marks a fragment of a plane. I'll need time and people to decipher it, so I'll be busy with that for a while."
"Oh? What do you think it'll be?" The Bio Lab chief's eyes sparkled with curiosity. The future hard drives and alien storage devices had already advanced the Eternal City's theoretical math, physics, and chemistry by an entire tier. Scientists from all departments were now busy digesting that knowledge and organizing symposiums. Solomon had agreed to pause operations and focus on study, even planning regular academic lectures. As head of the Bio Lab, Maya Hansen had been exposed to cutting-edge computational neuroscience and genetics. She wondered if that plane fragment held even more knowledge—her kind of knowledge.
The thirst for knowledge was infinite. It was a founding principle of the Eternal City—a place built on the foundation of global scholarly brotherhoods over the past ten millennia. Knowledge and art were the city's lifeblood.
"I don't know," the arcane master shrugged. Future-Solomon had already gifted his current self with so much—he couldn't imagine what more the Eternal City could need, or what was so valuable that his future self would go to such lengths to deliver it.
He quickly returned to Kamar-Taj to recruit assistance. The Outer Planes had been eerily quiet lately—though, in truth, that was their normal state. Conflicts between the Material Plane and the Outer Planes didn't happen every day. With the rising tensions between the Upper and Lower Planes, the Material Plane had been temporarily ignored.
As long as devils, demons, or angels weren't recruiting from the Material Plane, Kamar-Taj wouldn't intervene. Let those dogs tear each other apart—that suited the Ancient One just fine.
"You should focus on the Silver Key," the Ancient One disapproved, shaking her head. "I know the risks of exploring obscure knowledge. But the Silver Key is your path forward in magic. Vishanti won't grant infinite access, and even the Kamar-Taj library cannot grant you unprecedented achievements. Go dreamwalking, child. The inner plane can wait."
------------------
Enjoying the story? Support the author and get early access to chapters by joining my Patre@n!
Find me at: patre@n*com/Mutter
You can read each novel for $5 or get them all for just $15.
Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
[+50 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[+5 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter]