The Holy Son in Marvel

Though separated by a crowd, Solomon and Coulson could clearly see the gruesome condition of the corpse. The face and throat were so mutilated it looked as if an animal had ravaged it, and the gaping wound in the neck revealed the bare vertebrae beneath. The limbs had also been torn apart, and as the royal soldiers carried it over, fragments of flesh continued to drop onto the muddy ground. Thanks to a tightly fastened bulletproof vest, the torso was mostly intact, but the ammo clips and other emergency gear attached to it were missing. The killer, apparently hungry, had tried to peel the corpse like an onion, only to be thwarted by the resilient nylon pouches—torn black threads dangled like forlorn spores reaching toward the sky.

If Solomon hadn't caught sight of the battered S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem on the corpse's bloodstained arm, he wouldn't have recognized which unit it belonged to. Coulson remained calm, piecing together the situation in an instant. "He must have come from the cave too," he said. "Probably trailing behind us. Time and reality work differently here, so he might have been only a step behind."

"The cave could swallow others as easily as it did us," Solomon replied. "It's like a drain in a sink, constantly sucking people in. I'm more worried it'll start spitting things from this world out, like in It. And if that happens, we're in big trouble. How many did you bring with you?"

"Just four agents from the action team."

"That leaves three still unaccounted for. We should assume they've all come through," Solomon sighed. "Tell Natasha to prepare herself. Her suit has the S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem on it; we can only hope the girls didn't see it clearly. Otherwise, our time here may be shorter than expected. Coulson, if things go south, you and Natasha should move quickly. Remember those four girls—keeping track of them is your and Natasha's job."

"What are you going to do now?" Coulson asked.

"I'll verify if the suspects are witches, then try to find the remaining agents if they're here. We need all the hands we can get," Solomon replied. "I'm going deeper into the forest. If I'm not back by nightfall, don't wait for me; make your own call."

The four names Solomon had given Coulson did indeed belong to members of the local witches' gathering, but unlike Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Parris, they had joined only recently and weren't invited by Kaziah Mason. Instead, the Dark One had chosen them, leading them into the fold by accident.

After working on the farm, Mary Price had given the girls stew and bread. In this era, farmers couldn't easily remove ergot from wheat, and with the previous winter being particularly damp, mold thrived. The bread Mary provided had spoiled somewhat, and the girls ate bread laced with LSD-like compounds.

Afterward, they began seeing the world as it truly was.

Mary Price, hearing that Alice Parker knew the Bible well, asked her to read a few passages aloud for the illiterate Price couple. But when Alice opened her pocket New Testament, the pages appeared blank. After rubbing her eyes and looking again, she saw her own name written in blood on the pages. The hallucinations didn't end there: as Bridget Bishop started stitching a doll during a break, another girl, Margaret Scott, began experiencing stomach cramps and bleeding from her waist. She soon noticed that Bridget's doll bore a striking resemblance to her, and as Bridget sewed, bleeding wounds appeared on Margaret's body.

When Susannah Martin was sent to milk the cows, she spotted a small mouse climbing down a tree branch with something in its mouth. She tried to get the others to look, but no one else could see the mouse, no matter how she described it. Exhausted, she gave up trying and simply stared at it, noticing that it had human-like hands and feet and a face disturbingly similar to a person's. The creature hissed and spat, knocking over a milk pail as it ran by and splashing Susannah before disappearing into a tool shed with its prey.

John Price sent Bridget to search for a lost calf named Maisie, which had wandered into the wheat fields days before and hadn't returned. The tall wheat stalks obscured Bridget's vision, but she could hear the calf's bleating and followed the sound. Through the stalks, she glimpsed a scarecrow in the distance, stuffed with dark straw.

As she approached, she felt as if the scarecrow was watching her, and fear engulfed her. Suddenly, she heard the calf scream as if something had attacked it. Setting aside her fear, she ran toward the sound and found the calf's body with its throat and belly torn open. The scarecrow loomed above the carcass, motionless, at least as far as the girl could tell—until blood began to ooze from it, drenching Bridget and making her scream until John Price arrived to take the calf's body away, calming her down somewhat.

That night, as they were crossing the dark forest between Salem Village and the town, they accidentally came upon the Dark One feasting on a sacrifice Kaziah Mason had offered. The girls fled, but the Dark One had marked them, and their names had already appeared in the Book of Azathoth. Yet, even as Ann Putnam started accusing townspeople, the four girls hadn't acquired much power. They could only curse instinctively; Reverend Parris's fall down the stairs, breaking his leg, was a result of one such unintentional curse. Discovering this frightened and thrilled them.

Now terrified by the witch hunts sweeping through Salem, the girls had hidden in their homes, not even notifying John Price. This was why Price had asked Solomon to check on them. It was spring, and the farm needed hands, and he and Mary couldn't manage it alone. But Price's concerns were now irrelevant. Once arrested, their property would be seized by the public. Even if they proved their innocence, their assets wouldn't be returned and would be divided among the judge, inquisitor, and clerk.

While Solomon headed into the depths of the dark forest, Coulson also managed to track down the four girls. Remembering Solomon's warning, he kept his distance and didn't approach them directly. Luckily, the girls stayed together, making it easy for Coulson to keep an eye on them all at once. Natasha joined the surveillance, blending in by dressing as a local, padding her figure with extra clothing, covering her hair with a headscarf, and darkening her cheeks with a thin layer of coal to avoid drawing attention.

Neither Coulson nor Natasha let their guard down. Both were armed, as danger lurked everywhere in this lawless era. They took turns on watch, occasionally returning to tend to Tituba, who was hidden in the inn and couldn't show herself. The surveillance continued all day, and by nightfall, Solomon still hadn't returned. Coulson, now back at the inn, expressed his concern to Natasha when she came in.

But Natasha had no better solution. Solomon had forbidden them from entering the forest, and they still had to go to the jail to rescue the innocents Solomon had identified. The task was challenging and thankless, and they didn't have space to hide them all in their small room at the inn. Yet, to Coulson's surprise, the town's courthouse remained lit well into the night, filled with townsfolk chanting for witches to be hanged.

Judge Cotton Mather and inquisitor Matthew Hopkins no longer intended to keep the suspects in jail, fearing that they might disappear from their cells like Tituba had. Losing one prisoner had already earned Cotton Mather a reprimand from Governor William, so he was determined to handle this matter swiftly.

After interrogations in the morning and at noon, they passed judgment in the afternoon and carried out executions by nightfall. In this courtroom, suspects were forbidden from defending themselves, as such words were seen as lies spoken by the devil through their mouths. Every sentence was death; the only variation was that men were crushed by stones, while women were hanged. The fanatical Salem residents, reveling as if at London's Tyburn Gallows, indulged their twisted sense of power and "justice." As naked, scarred women writhed on the gallows and lost control of their bodies, the crowd cheered, venting their fears as if their voices alone kept the witches on the gallows.

The scene horrified Coulson, revealing humanity's darkest side. Before joining S.H.I.E.L.D., he had been a history student who went straight from high school to the agency. He had only read about such atrocities and had always believed in law and humanity. But now, witnessing the frenzied crowd, he felt as if he were in hell.

"I'm…" he started.

"Coulson, are you alright?" Natasha asked, noticing his distress. She was more accustomed to scenes like this, having seen collective hysteria before, even worse ones. But for Coulson, one of the more idealistic S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, this was a devastating blow to his faith in humanity.

Not all in the crowd were as swept up in the frenzy. Coulson and Natasha weren't alone in keeping their distance; Randolph Carter also stood apart, with Abigail Williams clutching his coat in fear and worry, anxious over Tituba's disappearance. Randolph looked westward into the dark forest with a solemn expression, waiting for something he hoped to see emerge from the shadows.

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