Once everyone realized that there was actually a consensus about the main figures involved in this incident, the atmosphere finally became less tense. Even though there was a corpse lying beneath their feet, it wasn't something anyone here couldn't manage.
"Maybe we can bury her a bit deeper," Natasha suggested. "New York's temperature has dropped, so it shouldn't be a problem. Of course, it's your house, so it's your call."
"We can't bury her here," Greed said. "There's a housewarming party in a few days, and there will be too many eyes and ears around. If something goes wrong, it would be bad."
"They shouldn't go into the backyard," Bucky said. "Besides, keeping an eye on her is better than dumping her somewhere unknown. If the body dumping is traced back to us, Natasha and Steven would be in trouble."
Steve also agreed with this sentiment and said, "Don't forget, Hampton is haunted and this lady's death might be related to it. If she turns into a zombie…"
Stark grinned and said, "Don't you have that Freeze Gun? Just freeze her and put her in the basement."
Greed was obviously reluctant to do so since he had no penchant for hoarding corpses. He looked to Arrogant. Arrogant whispered to him, "This won't be the last one."
The implication was that things were bound to happen over the next few days and at the housewarming party, and they wouldn't have only this one body. Handling one by one was too troublesome; it was better to accumulate and resolve them all at once.
Greed sighed and took out the Freeze Gun. After freezing Manas's body, they took it to the estate's basement together. It was their first time in the basement, which was nothing special, just a few empty big rooms. Except for a lamp above, there was nothing.
"This place has been cleaned recently," Steve said after checking around. "There should've been stuff piled up in that corner for years, and there's a shelf over there, also—it looks like there was a cement platform, but it's all been removed now."
"Dracula must've run away," Coulson said. "Maybe he resolved some tricky matters here."
"You mean he did something to the bodies…"
"These bodies couldn't be handled by conventional means," Strange said to Greed. "Freezing them first is an unavoidable choice. If the Hampton issue remains unresolved, even if you toss them into the ocean, they might come crawling back."
Dr. Banner rubbed his arm and said, "So that guy secretly transported the bodies here, hoping Dracula would come back to resolve it?"
"The best scenario, of course, is that," Strange said. "Otherwise, he might have known there would be some mutation with the body and deliberately sent it to scare us, to retaliate for us hurting someone at his party."
Coulson hurried to check the frozen corpse again. Fortunately, the Freeze Gun Greed wielded was the latest version, with the dense ice being the toughest seal in the world. Even if some spiritual energy could animate the whole body, it could only jump stiffly, unable to break through the ice layer's seal.
To prevent the corpse from really bouncing out, Greed coated the entire basement with a layer of dense ice, especially sealing the cellar door. After doing all this, he sighed and said, "Perhaps we should ask Dracula how he resolves these issues."
"I'm afraid we can't use his methods," Strange said. "You might have heard this legend: those bitten by a vampire will all become vampires. Not all vampires can do this, like those who previously invaded New York lacked the ability to transform. This is related to their bloodline."
"However, as the progenitor of vampires, Dracula can transform people into vampires. There are two forms of transformation; one is the 'Initial Embrace,' where Dracula first drains the other's blood and before they die, feeds them his own blood, thus converting them into his progeny. Many powerful vampires now are his bloodline."
"But there's another method—infection. If after drinking someone's blood, he neither kills them nor performs an Initial Embrace, they become infected as a vampire monster, also called a blood slave. These are the lowest level monsters, nearly mindless and very fragile, and most are kept within the vampire's territory until they're completely drained."
"These vampire monsters share a trait: they can't be exposed to the slightest bit of sunlight…"
"Wait," Steve interrupted, then asked, "Aren't all vampires unable to be exposed to sunlight?"
"Certainly not," Strange said. "Although Dracula doesn't like sunlight, it can't kill him. Additionally, there are Daywalkers among vampires who can walk in sunlight, like the Blade Warrior. Many vampires with strong bloodlines can be harmed by sunlight, but unless exposed to intense sunlight for long periods, they won't die from exposure."
"As for the blood slaves, even a tiny bit of sunlight would disintegrate them. I believe this might be Dracula's method for resolving supernatural incidents."
Stark paused his actions: "Are you saying Dracula would directly bite someone possessed by a ghost, then let them be exposed to sunlight to turn them to ashes?"
Strange nodded and said, "Ghost possession isn't that simple. If they seek to freely manipulate a body for some purpose, they have to fuse to some degree with the body's original soul. If at that moment, the original body and soul are destroyed in a mystical sense, then the ghosts likely wouldn't escape either. Especially the ghosts here."
Stark then understood. Previously, Dracula mentioned that this haunting wasn't solely a material world issue; it also existed in a person's psyche. So before the ghosts cause trouble, directly destroying the person's physical and mental being meant eliminating the ghosts on both material and spiritual levels.
"But what does it matter?" Bucky asked, "Being possessed by ghosts means death; getting bitten by him and then dying in the sun is also death. This person wasn't saved, was he?"
"Yes, the individual is doomed. But perhaps we can save others," Strange said. "Don't forget how hallucinations form. It's just like dreams; what you think during the day, you dream at night.
"If someone is ghost possessed and dies in a very bizarre way in front of them, they feel fear. Greater mental stress brings more hallucinations. And since ghosts themselves stem from hallucinations, more ghosts will come after them, spreading like a plague."
"Now isn't it..."
They had just reached the front hall when they saw the red and blue police lights flashing in the residential area below through the window. Everyone rushed to the windowsill and saw one of the houses cordoned off. Quickly, a body was carried out, and the other people in the house were taken away by the police.
"Oh..." Steve said, "This doesn't seem like how you treat a victim's family. The police even handcuffed them and forced them into the car. Are they trying to pin the crime on the other party this time?"
Natasha seemed to have some insight: "I think I know why they were in such a hurry to have me plead guilty."
Natasha turned to Strange and said, "If as you said, what you think during the day, you dream at night. If they can find a scapegoat to turn this into a typical murder rather than a supernatural event, then they can convince themselves: there's no such thing as ghosts; it's just someone causing trouble. Can this partially fend off hallucinations?"
"From a psychological perspective, that's exactly the case," Greed said. "People are great at persuading themselves. Especially when facing traumatic memories, the brain naturally blurs and forgets some parts. With even a flimsy reason, thoughts and memories are forced to veer in an acceptable direction. It's certainly a relatively strong mental barrier."
"If they can easily convince themselves with any flawed reasoning, it shows they have no guilt whatsoever," Steve suddenly said. "They haven't been tormented by their conscience and even see themselves as victims. But what's to be expected of them?"
Bucky couldn't help but glance at him, having already guessed that Steve must have witnessed something in South Fork, perhaps even been caught up in some events. Bucky believed Steve must have acted honorably and done his best. Yet, undoubtedly, those events left a considerable shadow on him, still lingering to this day.
"Want to go and see what's going on?" Coulson asked.
"I'm afraid soon you'll have no choice," Greed said. "Since paranormal occurrences have already started massively, they'll surely try everything. It's within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s jurisdiction, so anyhow, you'll have to send someone to investigate."
Greed's words were prophetic. Coulson was called away by a phone call. It wasn't long before S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Flying Shuttle drove in. After pausing for a moment, Dr. Banner said, "S.H.I.E.L.D. has quite a few capable people; maybe they really have a way."
From the window, they watched S.H.I.E.L.D. agents enter the house and stayed for a long time without coming out. Presumably, they were investigating and gathering evidence. But evidently, they were unfamiliar with the area's history and customs. Investigating like this might not lead to anything.
"Bang bang bang!"
The manor's door was knocked on. Everyone finally left the windowsill and came to the door. Once the door was open, Coulson appeared in front of them, wearing his S.H.I.E.L.D. agent uniform.
"Good morning, gentlemen." Standing outside the door, Coulson cleared his throat. "About the murder at yesterday's wedding, I have some things to ask you."
Before anyone could speak, he walked inside and turned toward the door then said, "No problem, we'll definitely actively cooperate with the investigation."
"Were there any anomalies in the murder you witnessed at the wedding yesterday?" Coulson turned again towards the door.
"It was like this. The wedding had just begun..." Coulson returned inside, recounting the process Natasha and Strange described yesterday, repeating the conjecture about branches and such.
Then he went outside again, took out paper and pen, began taking notes, and said, "Just now, the bride from the wedding yesterday also died. Did you have any interactions with her afterward? Did you notice anything unusual?"
Coulson once more turned inside and spoke to the empty doorway, "Oh, that's really regrettable. But we stayed together all afternoon and evening yesterday and didn't notice anything unusual or contact the bride's family again."
Afterward, he turned again to the door and said, "Okay, I got it. Thank you for your cooperation. I'll report it all to S.H.I.E.L.D. Goodbye."
He closed the door. Inside, everyone looked at each other in astonishment.
"No wonder he's a Level 8 Agent," Bucky sighed.
Natasha shook her head: "He's a Level 8 Agent because the highest rank for field agents is Level 8."