Sorcerer in the Marvel Universe

Ever since the Umbrella Corporation’s first subsidiary, Gospel, had officially been established, the Eredar twins had spent most of their time there.

Starting a company was messy.

There were countless projects to coordinate, plans to formulate, departments to organize, people to manage, and fires to put out. The larger the company became, the more complicated everything got.

Contrary to what some people imagined, billionaires didn’t spend their days sleeping until noon, lounging in offices, and fooling around with their secretaries.

They worked.

And running a massive company was hardly easy.

A successful executive could put on a work uniform, pick up a broom, and sweep streets for a day.

But could the street sweeper put on a suit, walk into the executive office, and run a multinational corporation?

Exactly.

As the twins had once told their subordinates, the world was perfectly fair.

Those with ability rose to the top.

Those without it had to depend on others.

And sometimes, what the powerless called "fairness" was simply envy wearing a respectable suit.

In any case, the Eredar twins were extremely busy these days.

They hadn’t even visited their old nightclub in quite some time.

Apparently, their days of neon lights, expensive liquor, and nightlife had been replaced by spreadsheets, meetings, and corporate expansion.

Deep beneath Gospel’s main office building, however, things were considerably more interesting.

As previously established, the building had originally belonged to a secret U.S. military research facility. The military had excavated nearly ten stories beneath the surface to create a subterranean complex for research into things that were, for obvious reasons, not discussed with the public.

The Eredar twins now occupied the lowest level.

Sublevel Ten.

It was the most secret location in the entire company.

And even here, there was one place more restricted than everything else.

Not long ago, the twins had personally ordered the two laboratories on Sublevel Ten completely sealed off.

Their most trusted followers, personally trained by the twins themselves, guarded the entrances around the clock.

Unauthorized entry was practically impossible.

The doors were made of high-strength alloy and protected by an absurd array of security measures.

Voice recognition.

Facial recognition.

Fingerprints.

Retinal scans.

Everything short of asking the intruder for their mother’s maiden name.

Of course, the twins knew perfectly well that none of those measures were foolproof.

Hollywood had demonstrated that fact thousands of times.

If someone made a list of every movie where a supposedly impenetrable security system had been breached, their doors had probably already been hacked, blown open, bypassed, or impersonated at least ten thousand times.

So they had added one final measure.

An artifact of Legion engineering.

A Fel lock.

The door could only be opened by injecting a precise amount of Fel energy at a specific frequency.

Inside, the walls were covered in defensive runes personally inscribed by the high-ranking warlock Aureces.

The great scientist Gennos had also reinforced the entire structure using Legion technology, essentially turning the facility into a magical bunker capable of surviving something approaching nuclear war.

The Eredar twins had given this most secret location a suitably grand name.

The Final Doctrine.

Every confidential document belonging to Umbrella was stored there, including Gennos’s design schematics and research notes.

There were only a few safes, so the actual archives took up surprisingly little space.

Naturally, the twins refused to waste perfectly good real estate.

So they put the empty space to use.

A bar.

A dance floor.

A stripper pole.

A complete sound system.

And an assortment of premium adult toys.

Since the twins regularly worked until they forgot to eat, sleep, or check the time, they had eventually decided to live at the company.

The Final Doctrine doubled as their private lounge.

Officially, they were personally guarding Umbrella’s most sensitive secrets.

Their employees were deeply moved when they learned that their bosses actually lived inside the company.

See?

That was what a real executive looked like.

An ordinary employee slept in the office once and thought they’d demonstrated extraordinary dedication.

Their bosses were worth billions and still slept at work because they were simply too busy to go home.

The inspirational effect was immediate.

Employees began volunteering for overtime, giving up vacation days, and working with the enthusiasm of people who had just consumed an entire bottle of motivational poison.

Their bosses, meanwhile, were currently holding a rather serious meeting inside the Final Doctrine.

Saloras lounged on a purple velvet sofa with a glass of red wine in hand.

She held up a bank card.

"Another bank account."

She gave it an amused look.

"That boy really does have a lot of them. If he keeps producing more, I’ll have enough to play a full game of poker."

There was no one else around to impress, so the twins had decorated the place according to their own tastes.

The sofa, for example, wasn’t covered in expensive leather.

It was solid mahogany covered with velvet, with gold and gemstones worked into the corners.

Because if you were going to build a secret underground headquarters, there was no reason to do anything halfway.

Across from her, Aureces lounged on a red velvet sofa.

Her sofa was decorated with rubies instead.

"But our little informant got caught too," Aureces said lazily.

"That’s because the dog was stupid."

Saloras tossed the bank card onto the Italian marble coffee table.

"He was too eager to prove himself. Rushed in, tried to earn credit, and got himself exposed."

"Which is why, after receiving that little wildcat’s phone call, we haven’t done anything."

Aureces shifted comfortably against the sofa and swirled her wine.

"We’re just sitting here drinking."

A faint smile crossed Saloras’s lips.

"Heh."

She narrowed her eyes.

"That little wildcat is trying to use us to do her dirty work."

She took a sip.

"She knows perfectly well that we don’t get along. If Evenson really did what she claimed and went out to meet another woman..."

Her fingers tightened around the wineglass.

A tiny crack appeared in the glass.

"...why didn’t she go confront him herself?"

Aureces’s expression became thoughtful.

"Because she wants us to rush over there like Habs did."

"Exactly."

Cold light flashed through Saloras’s eyes.

"She wants us to make a scene. Whether her information is true or false, Evenson will be the one who gets angry at us."

She glanced toward her sister.

"He might even start resenting us."

"That’s a good point."

Aureces raised her glass and inspected the wine.

"I certainly won’t fall for her little scheme."

She brought the glass toward her face and inhaled its aroma.

"But..."

Her expression became slightly uncertain.

"What if Evenson really is..."

Saloras immediately understood what she was worried about.

"No."

She answered without hesitation.

"Evenson isn’t some idiot who thinks with his lower half. He’s not the sort of man who sees one attractive woman and immediately falls in love with her."

She took another small sip.

"Besides..."

A subtle smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"I don’t think he has the courage anymore."

"He doesn’t?"

Aureces still looked unconvinced.

"Then how did he end up with that little wildcat in the first place?"

"That..."

Saloras’s brows drew together.

"It’s complicated."

She thought for a moment.

"You could say it was the result of one misunderstanding after another."

Her expression changed.

"But now..."

She gave a quiet, knowing laugh.

"Heh."

Aureces nodded.

Her sister’s explanation made perfect sense.

The two women sank back into their respective sofas.

Silence settled over the room.

For a long while, neither said anything.

Then, almost simultaneously, both women sat upright.

"We should probably check."

They looked at each other.

Neither needed to explain what she meant.

By the time Evenson was nearing the Malick estate, completely unaware of what was happening, the mark the Eredar twins had placed on his arm suddenly gave off a faint shimmer.

Evenson didn’t notice.

He had no idea that two women hundreds of miles away had just decided to take a closer look at his situation.

And judging by the look on their faces, "taking a closer look" was probably going to involve considerably more than simple observation.

...

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