Not long ago, inside the Hydra base, Steve was on the verge of tears.
He had clearly been trying to warn Harry just now, but Harry had still been banished by Hydra's despicable trick. Now there was no telling where he had been sent.
This was bad. The Avengers' greatest powerhouse had been driven away, and nobody knew how long it would take him to make it back to Earth.
From what Steve had learned, the power Hydra now controlled had already far surpassed that of the Avengers. Without Harry's help, the Avengers were in serious danger of being wiped out.
And setting that aside, just for Steve personally, the situation felt hopeless.
His rescue had been right in front of him. How had things suddenly flipped around so completely, leaving Hydra in total control?
Wonderful. Now he was stuck here in this military base again, with Hydra continuing to brainwash him.
At this rate, the next time he saw Tony and the others, he might already have become the new Captain Hydra.
At that moment, Sitwell and the other Hydra leaders noticed what had happened inside the cell.
Before long, Sitwell led a group of high-ranking Hydra officials through the shattered cell door and into the room.
Excitement written all over his face, he kicked Steve square in the chest and sent him flying backward, while the symbiote covering his body flowed like liquid back into him.
Sitwell stood there with arrogant delight and said, "Did you see that? Did you see that? Even Harry Potter can be outplayed by Hydra!
"Now that Harry Potter is gone, the remaining forces on Earth are no match for us at all!
"Notify Hydra's Supreme Commander at once. The plan begins immediately. Launch attacks on every remaining resistance force, and activate the space-time device as soon as possible to drag Earth into the parallel universe where Hydra headquarters is located!"
"Yes!" one of the officers answered sharply, then immediately used an encrypted communicator to send the message to Hydra's Supreme Commander.
Sitwell slowly walked over to Steve, yanked the ball gag from his mouth, and sneered, "Heh. Captain, remember how back then you were a big shot in front of me? Just like that bastard Pierce, always looking down on me.
"But what about now? Pierce—that bastard who cast me aside just because I had no talent for magic—I bit him apart piece by piece.
"And you? You're going to be brainwashed and turned into the new Captain Hydra. Then you'll spend the rest of your days fighting the very teammates who once stood beside you.
"Heh. That's a pretty fitting ending, isn't it?"
Steve sucked in a hard breath and spat at Sitwell, but the symbiote blocked it easily.
He roared back in fury, "Dream on! Harry will get back to this universe soon enough, and when he does, he'll wipe out every last one of you parasites!"
Instead of having the intended effect, Steve's warning only made Sitwell even happier.
"Hahaha! I'm not afraid to admit it—I really am scared of Harry Potter. He's powerful in a way that's practically inhuman!
"No, not practically. He isn't human at all. He has to be some kind of indescribable energy lifeform. How else could a mere human possibly reach power on the level of a single universe or even higher?
"But so what? Killing Harry Potter was never our true goal. What we really want is this universe's Earth.
"Now that we've exiled Harry Potter to another universe, he'll end up fighting some powerful multiversal faction, which means there's no way he can get back in a short time.
"And by the time he does return, Earth will already have been transferred to another universe.
"And never mind whether Harry Potter even has the ability to travel between parallel universes. Even if he does, how could he ever find us in the endless sea of them?"
After learning the truth, Steve's face turned extremely grim. He genuinely could not think of any way to solve the crisis in front of him.
Was Earth in this universe really going to fall completely into Hydra's hands?
At that moment, Sitwell ordered his subordinates, "Bring over the hypnosis equipment. I don't care if it causes brain damage—turn the Captain into our beloved Captain Hydra as quickly as possible. We still need him for the war to come."
Now that he knew what awaited him, Steve kept struggling even in the middle of that hopeless situation, trying to shove away the Hydra soldiers restraining him and buy himself even a little more time.
But his resistance was quickly crushed completely. Sitwell planted a foot on Steve's chest, instantly taking away his ability to fight back, and sneered, "Give it up, Captain. Harry Potter isn't coming back. Besides, what's so bad about joining Hydra? You'll have wealth, luxury, everything you could ever want."
Steve spat out blood with difficulty and rasped, "In your dreams!"
Sitwell only scoffed and repeated his order to his men.
"The one dreaming isn't me anymore. It's you. Harry Potter isn't coming back!"
And yet, right then, he suddenly noticed Steve staring past him in utter shock.
Confused, Sitwell slowly turned around.
What he saw was an energy entity whose body was constantly twisting and shimmering with multicolored light.
And that entity looked strikingly, unmistakably similar to Harry Potter.
No. It was Harry Potter.
Harry Potter, whom they had banished into some parallel universe, had somehow returned almost instantly.
The moment he saw Harry, Steve's face lit up with wild joy, and he immediately struggled harder.
"Harry! Get me out of here! And make sure you catch Sitwell—he took Pierce's place as the top commander of this base!"
But while Steve was ecstatic, Sitwell's back was soaked in cold sweat within seconds.
People always said your enemies understood you better than you understood yourself. Sitwell had studied Harry's abilities in detail, and after receiving even more intelligence about him from multiversal Hydra headquarters, he knew perfectly well just how terrifying Harry was.
And right now, Sitwell was terrified.
Damn it. Why?
They had clearly succeeded in using temporal collapse to throw him into a parallel universe, so why was he already back?
But very soon, both Sitwell and Steve noticed something strange about the Harry in front of them.
He was expressionless, and his body was not flesh at all but pure energy, flickering and trembling slightly from instability every second.
When he landed, he did not open his mouth, but a cold mechanical female voice sounded from inside him instead.
"Connection to primary body confirmed severed. Hedwig Unit 10086 will now operate autonomously.
"Confirming master's final command: assist Steve in escaping this military base, and destroy it as thoroughly as possible.
"Steve Rogers's identity has been confirmed. His communication ability is likewise confirmed. Respected Mr. Steve Rogers, please issue your instructions."
"Shut up!"
"Get me out of here!"
Sitwell and Steve shouted almost in unison. But while Sitwell's roar was doomed to accomplish nothing, the energy projection immediately received Steve's command and Apparated in front of him, drawing a sword of lightning out of thin air.
The lightning sword flashed through the air, and the high-strength restraints binding Steve were cut apart at once.
Even though the bindings had been pressed tightly against Steve's skin, the projection's movements were so precise that he still was not harmed in the slightest.
Realizing he could no longer stop Steve from speaking, Sitwell's body suddenly expanded until he became a red giant nearly eight feet tall.
The next instant, thick symbiote matter as black as tar erupted from him, twisting into countless vicious tentacles in midair.
Those slime-coated limbs split open at the ends into barbed suckers, each sweep producing a shrill, grating sound that scraped at the nerves.
In an instant, the slime hardened into a storm of sharp blades and stabbed toward Harry.
If Harry's real body had been standing in front of Sitwell right now, Sitwell would have run without hesitation. But this was only an energy projection, and with the symbiote as his trump card, he had more than enough confidence to deal with it.
And yet the result that followed far exceeded Sitwell's expectations.
He only heard Hedwig's cold voice echo from inside the projection.
"Hostile target detected. Initiating attack.
"Lethal magic selected. Spell 013: Incendio."
Once Harry had first completed Hedwig's initial framework, he had already been able to use Hedwig's processing power to stabilize magic without relying on a wand.
So now, with enough chaos magic available, Hedwig could naturally continue casting highly destructive spells even while separated from Harry.
Of course, the magic circles available to her were fixed and lacked adaptability, which made them a poor choice in high-level combat.
But against Sitwell, fixed spell arrays were more than sufficient.
In the next moment, the energy projection raised both hands, and scorching fire erupted from them, engulfing Sitwell completely.
Harry's chaos magic was far more terrifying than ancient magic, and any spell cast with it was vastly stronger than the magic of an ordinary wizard.
So when those tentacle blades, harder than steel, collided with the raging flames, they had no power to resist at all and melted almost instantly.
As his entire body was burned, both Sitwell and the symbiote screamed in piercing agony.
The moment he realized just how powerful the magical flames were, Sitwell shouted in rage, "Damn it! Why is even an energy projection this strong?!"
Understanding that he was no match for the thing in front of him, Sitwell did not hesitate for even a second. He gave up fighting altogether, smashed straight through a wall, and charged deeper into the military base.
Deep inside the base was a portal leading to other parallel universes. If he could just leave this universe, he would be safe.
Steve looked thrilled. He had never expected this energy projection to be so powerful.
It had only traded blows with Sitwell for a moment before badly injuring him and forcing him to flee.
If the projection kept pushing, there was every chance it could eliminate that monster for good.
But to Steve's surprise, the projection showed absolutely no intention of chasing after Sitwell. That left Steve panicking, and he hurriedly shouted, "Harry, say something! Don't let him get away!"
The projection did not disappoint him. After a brief pause, it immediately began drawing a magic circle and said in a deep voice,
"Target's precise location has been confirmed. Beginning charge sequence. Magic Protocol 001: Super Planet-Killer Cannon."
Steve: "???"
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