Professor McGonagall stayed silent for a while before finally speaking: "Mr. Ferguson, I am now beginning to worry whether we would have any ability to respond if you were to become the next Voldemort."
Snape, however, didn't share that concern. He retorted: "If he truly wanted to rule the world, not even Dumbledore could stop him. There is no need to be alarmist."
Harvey smiled and said nothing.
Professor Filius Flitwick cautiously reminded them: "Since the danger has been resolved, let us hurry back and comfort the children. The students are terrified."
Professor Snape thought for a moment and waved his hand, signaling McGonagall and Flitwick to return first.
Once the two professors had headed back into the school, he pulled out a bottle of deep-red potion.
"This is the potion you requested. Voldemort did not appear, which means the threat still exists. Be careful."
Upon seeing the potion, Harvey's feigned indifference vanished. He quickly took the vial; the physique potion he had been longing for had finally been researched.
He thanked him with a solemn tone: "Thank you very much, Professor Snape. This is very important to me!"
"It was nothing. Compared to the debt of gratitude I owe you for freeing me from my misery, helping research a new potion is insignificant."
After Snape finished speaking, appearing as if he had set down a heavy burden, he turned and returned to the school in a light mood.
Harvey, however, stared at the deep-red potion in his hand with a face full of hesitation.
Now that the critical moment had arrived, he ironically began to fret over the potential gains and losses.
After all, he didn't know what the consequences of drinking this potion would be.
What if there were severe permanent side effects?
What if the potion was too powerful and caused his body to explode?
What if the old bat was actually a spy for Voldemort and this potion was actually a deadly poison?
What if...
The more he thought, the less Harvey dared to drink it lightly.
"I can't let this victim paranoia get to me. I'll head back to the Marvel world and just down it!"
Having made his decision, he summoned a school owl and left a letter for Hermione.
Then, he opened a portal directly and returned to the estate in New York in the Marvel world.
Cho Chang and Wanda happened to be asleep in the bedroom.
Harvey walked in and woke the two women up.
"Wake up!"
"Mnn... what is it? Darling, why are you back? Let Wanda play with you, I'm still sleepy."
"No, no, let Sister Cho do it..."
The two women had been sleeping soundly. Having been shaken awake, they thought Harvey wanted sex again and started deferring to each other.
With a forehead covered in dark lines, Harvey said sternly: "Stop passing the buck. I plan to drink a potion to increase my strength. You two help protect me."
"Huh?"
The two women asked in unison.
"Don't 'huh' me. Just keep an eye out and don't let any outsiders disturb me." Harvey explained helplessly.
"Alright then."
The two women knew how to prioritize. After getting out of bed and washing their faces to wake up, they followed Harvey to the underground base.
"Salvio Hexia!"
"Protego Totalum!"
He first cast protective charms as the first layer of security, then had Cho Chang and Wanda stand outside the door as the second.
Finally, the underground base had Devil's Snare and traps filled with spikes as the third layer.
Feeling that everything was foolproof, Harvey stood in front of the potion brewing station, uncorked the deep-red potion, and downed it in one go.
"Gulp, gulp~"
He smacked his lips. The potion was actually sweet and tasted quite good.
However, very soon, a tearing, violent power erupted within his body.
"This potion... the kick... is massive..."
Every cell in his body was being relentlessly torn apart. His heart pounded faster and faster, thump-thump-thump, as if boiling blood were surging frantically through his veins.
The mana bottleneck that hadn't moved in a long time was forcefully shattered by this violent power.
"Ugh—Aaargh!"
The intense pain, which felt like it originated from the depths of his soul, caused Harvey to let out a low, beast-like growl.
The total volume of mana in his body was growing at a ferocious speed that an ordinary person could not even conceive.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes...
Harvey truly experienced what it felt like for seconds to feel like years.
This irrationally and frantically growing mana felt as if it were about to make his entire body explode.
He desperately wanted to discharge all of his mana right now.
But he forcefully suppressed that impulse.
Five minutes, six minutes...
Cold sweat began to bead on his forehead, and his body was shaking uncontrollably.
Inside him, his mana was gradually forming a magnificent, nebula-like vortex.
As time passed, the mana vortex continuously compressed and condensed, and a planet-like mana core faintly began to manifest.
As his willpower neared its breaking point...
The last thought in Harvey's mind was—Is my life really going to end like this?
BOOM—!
His consciousness went completely blank, and he passed out.
At the same time, the Mind Scepter automatically flew out of his spatial bag. The Mind Stone embedded at the tip of the scepter detached on its own and slowly merged into Harvey's forehead.
...
It felt as if a long time had passed.
Yet it also felt as if only half a minute had gone by.
His sea of consciousness was a vast, endless darkness.
In this moment.
Time lost its meaning.
Space lost its perception.
The five senses were completely stripped away.
Only a sixth sense—a mysterious intuition transcending all perception—was beginning to stir.
When this sixth sense discovered a point of light gradually appearing in the center of the sea of consciousness.
Harvey struggled to enhance his mysterious perception, pulling his vision closer, wanting to see this point of light clearly.
He believed this was likely some kind of exit.
But the point of light didn't seem to be an exit, because it was growing more and more blinding.
When the brightness reached a certain limit.
BOOM—!
It was like a reenactment of the Big Bang.
Erupting within his sea of consciousness.
Time was granted meaning once again in this moment.
Space expanded at a speed exceeding the speed of light.
Six suddenly appearing colored points of light captured Harvey's attention.
Pulling his vision closer again, these six colored points of light hurtling in all directions were clearly the most mysterious and precious artifacts in the universe: the Infinity Stones!!!
Furthermore, one of the yellow Infinity Stones, appearing as if it possessed a sentient soul, flew a distance before...
Abruptly turning a corner and flying back into the center of the sea of consciousness.
The other five Infinity Stones flew further and further away until they were swallowed by the darkness and vanished completely.
And the yellow stone in the center of the sea of consciousness grew brighter and brighter, its radiant light source illuminating the entire pitch-black sea of consciousness.
A bewildered Harvey unconsciously crashed his perception-transcending sixth sense into the yellow light source.
"Aaargh~~"
The moment his sixth sense rushed into the yellow light, it felt as if he had plunged into a bottomless abyss, falling deeper, and deeper, and deeper...
...
The five senses gradually returned, and his consciousness felt as if it were suddenly yanked back into his body.
Harvey snapped his eyes open, a flash of bright yellow light gleaming in his pupils.
"Phew..."
The first thing he sensed was the planet-like mana core within his body, and then a strange yellow light source that had been added to his sea of consciousness.
The overflowing mana gave Harvey an illusion of omnipotence.
Surveying his surroundings, he found he was still lying on the floor of the secret base.
However, the potion brewing station, the material storage cabinets, the cauldrons, and the various jars and vials containing ingredients were all levitating in the air.
"Is this... a magical riot phenomenon?"