Ismail's body is missing, the Shabak Crown is missing.
Dane easily deduced that someone was using Ismail's body to stir up trouble.
The first suspect, of course, were the "parasites"; their ability was to make dead bodies "live" again and inherit everything from them, including bloodline.
However, an interesting question was, how did these guys know about the relationship between Ismail and the Shabak Crown?
"Were there no other traces left at the scene?"
The Spirit of Kandake shook her head: "The other party was very clean and left no clues."
Dane, upon hearing this, actually laughed: "They couldn't even detect it with magic?"
The Spirit of Kandake's heart stirred: "I haven't tried that yet, and I'm not skilled in magic."
Although somewhat unbelievable, as the Spirit of Kandake, holding the eternal metal ore veins, she was not actually proficient in magic.
She had always helped her people through clairvoyance or dream inspiration, never personally taking to the battlefield.
Dane understood her and said, "Take me there."
Light and shadow shifted, and the two instantly arrived in a gloomy cave, with only a faint ray of sunlight from an unknown source in the dome providing a negligible amount of illumination.
Dane raised his hand and conjured a ball of light, letting it follow them as they advanced.
Soon they arrived at the stone platform shown in the movie, shaped like two hands holding a flower. It was now empty.
The Spirit of Kandake's slender fingers pointed to the empty space in the center of the rock: "There, that was where the Shabak Crown originally was."
Dane quipped, "I feel like this seal is very sloppy."
"Why didn't you just throw it into a volcano or the deep sea?"
eternal metal is not actually a very sturdy metal ore; you could have completely destroyed it directly."
The greatest use of eternal metal is its magical properties, but its performance in terms of durability and metallic ductility can only be described as very average.
However, it is precisely because of this that it can be made into explosives like missiles or grenades.
But the Spirit of Kandake explained to him: "We considered that method at the time, but the wizards of the Rock of Eternity studied that crown. It's equivalent to a contract."
"For the Hell Lords, such a contract cannot be signed casually. Once the contract is established, half of their magic power will be pledged to the contractual token, which is that crown."
"If the crown is destroyed..."
Dane understood. If the crown were destroyed, the demon lords who signed the contract would be able to reclaim their power.
Whether they then found someone else to re-sign or kept that portion of power to scheme against Earth again, all the wizards' efforts would be in vain.
So it was better to keep it, to hinder the demon lords.
As long as this contract existed, a portion of their magic power would forever remain on the contractual token.
This was like investing money in the stock market only to get stuck, but then again, all Hell demons are gamblers, aren't they?
However, this still couldn't explain why they placed the crown so openly here, making it obvious to everyone.
And this crown was too close to Black Adam!
Dane shifted his foot and found that he was stepping on a lightning-like symbol, the symbol of the Shazam Force, and also the place where Black Adam was sealed.
This was quite frustrating. Did the wizards expect Black Adam to deal with Shabak when he appeared?
Dane felt he might have stumbled upon the truth. Adam and the Acton line were sworn enemies!
Wizard Shazam, you really are something, truly worthy of being the human wizard who harmed countless gods, truly insidious and cunning... "Let's try and see if magic can tell us anything."
With that, Dane formed a spell with both hands, and a magical light spread out. This was a Retrospection Charm specifically used to trace past illusions.
However, nothing happened.
Dane felt a magical force blocking him, but it wasn't without clues.
In the magic that blocked him, Dane smelled the scent of magma, Hell's magma.
The other party came from Hell!
Dane had a conjecture in his mind: could it be that the "parasites" and Hell demons were cooperating?
The "parasites" possessed Ismail, allowing him to complete the Shabak ritual as a descendant of Acton and inherit demonic power.
Then they would use this power to complete their species' flaws, and then use this power to conquer this Planet.
That's a good idea!
The only question was, how did the "parasites" connect with the demons?
No, perhaps it could be thought of from another angle: perhaps the demons actively contacted the "parasites"?
But no matter which one, they needed an intermediary or a medium to connect the two.
The Hell Key was currently in Dane's hands, so the demons had few ways to connect to the Earth dimension.
And for demon lords of such a scale, the means they could use were even fewer.
First, consider the possibility that someone on this side summoned a demon.
Summoning a demon was not an easy task. If one's aptitude was insufficient, even with the correct ritual, the gate of Hell could not be opened.
If one's aptitude was sufficient, even randomly smearing chicken blood could attract a demon's descent.
And currently, there were only a handful of people on Earth with the aptitude to summon a demon lord of that level.
Zatanna and Constantine were two, but they wouldn't do such a thing.
Dream Lord Morpheus could directly reach Hell from the Dream World, but he also seemed to have no reason to do so.
Only Lucifer, this bored Fallen Angel, was a suspect, and only if he acted could the Rock of Eternity not even have time to issue an alarm.
However, Lucifer wasn't the most important thing right now. The most important thing was "Ismail"; where had that guy gone with the Shabak Crown?
The situation was roughly as Dane had guessed. The "parasites" had indeed occupied Ismail's body, making him rise again.
And they had also mastered the Shabak ritual, but some conditions had not yet been met.
Ismail had to die by the hand of his sworn enemy, the Defender, before they could go to the Rock of Eternity to receive Shabak's power.
Now they had Ismail, they had the crown, and all that was left was the Defender, Teth-Adam.
But they couldn't release Adam because they didn't know the incantation and weren't the fated ones.
However, they also had other ideas.
Through the information network controlled by the "parasites," they had already learned the news that Dr. Fate and Hawkman had emerged.
They also knew that the Justice Society was recruiting new members.
Thus, with the help of an internal mole, the Checkmate's archives quietly gained intelligence about Teth-Adam.
They believed Amanda would be interested in someone who also possessed the Shazam Force...
Amanda was indeed very interested.
The moment Harcourt brought Dr. Fate 400 back to Checkmate, she took him to meet her superior, Amanda, to confirm he was genuine.
Only then did she tell her everything.
Although Amanda was very displeased with Harcourt's unauthorized actions, she didn't dwell on it too much, considering she was able to enlist Doctor Fate.
Amanda was also aware of the Justice League's declaration; while she felt worried about it, she also saw it as an opportunity.
This was an opportunity to form the government's own superhero organization; since she could create an "X-Squad."
Why couldn't she create a "U.S. Justice League" plan?
This idea was very appealing to her.
The Justice Society's cooperation with them was clearly due to their intelligence capabilities, so she had been looking for suitable candidates during this time.
Unlike the X-Squad, the Justice Society had very high requirements for its members, so Amanda naturally couldn't just find some prison scum to fob them off with.
But when intelligence on the Kahndaq defender came into her sight, Amanda couldn't look away.
It was all because of that one line: "Shazam Force"!
It turned out that Shazam wasn't the only one with the "Shazam Force"; there was also a man named "Teth-Adam."
He was rumored to be the legendary defender of Kahndaq, a person who gained the Shazam Force long before Shazam was born!
Seeing these few lines of information, Amanda immediately decided to bring this power under Checkmate's control.
Since they were both users of the Shazam Force, Teth-Adam could at least contend with Shazam, right?
But when she presented this name to Kent, his face immediately changed, and he said firmly:
"He absolutely cannot!"
"Why?" Amanda was puzzled.
Kent said with a dark expression, "You don't understand that man at all; he has never been a hero, nor a defender. He is merely an executioner!"
Amanda hesitated, "But, I heard the Shazam Force is only bestowed upon those with good hearts."
She had learned this information from "Rich N"'s live stream.
Kent shook his head, "Others might be, but Teth-Adam is different. He was not the intended Shazam successor. As for why, I'm not entirely clear on the specifics."
"I only know that he became a defender by chance, but he didn't fulfill his responsibilities. Instead, in a fit of rage, he killed millions of innocent civilians..."
Amanda frowned deeply. If he was such a person, he certainly couldn't be recruited into the Justice Society.
But... he could be recruited into the X-Squad!
Checkmate had no moral requirements for its members, but she certainly couldn't say that.
So Amanda put on an extremely serious expression.
"If that's the case, I think we should control Teth-Adam even more. What if he opposes us in the future?"
Kent smiled, about to say it was impossible, but before he could speak, he suddenly paused.
Wait!
In his future vision, Shazam was not on the battlefield. Could this be related to Teth-Adam?
For example, he might be tied up by this opponent who also has the Shazam Force. It's not impossible!
Perhaps, placing him under the Justice Society's supervision would be better. He glanced at Amanda.
He wasn't unaware that this woman still had ideas about Teth-Adam, but no matter what she wanted to do, Checkmate would never be able to control that man.
Kent pondered for a moment and said, "Tell me Teth-Adam's exact location."
Amanda had already memorized his information by heart, so she quickly rattled off the address.
Kent nodded, and with a lift of his hands, the helmet of fate appeared in his grasp. He placed it on his head, instantly transforming into a radiant golden god.
Doctor Fate didn't even look at Amanda; with a flash of golden light, he vanished from the spot.
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