Ten minutes passed.
Viper's voice was completely gone. The agony, now escalating deep into her soul, made her grind her teeth until they shattered, blood and froth bubbling from her lips.
Logan watched as the ninjas and Hydra agents were sliced in half by invisible blades, their blood and intestines painting the floor.
Even on a battlefield, such a scene was rare.
However, he didn't stop it; he just watched coldly.
He never showed mercy to his enemies.
Yashida, having luckily escaped the initial purge, watched Harvey's brutal efficiency and the way he was torturing Viper.
His facial muscles twitched in terror, and his voice trembled as he begged for his life.
Harvey ignored Yashida's pleas, instead staring with a look of clinical interest at Viper, who had been tortured for ten solid minutes.
"Tsk tsk. I've always admired people with a backbone. Tortured to the brink of death and you still won't hand over the crown?"
Viper's consciousness was a blurred mess. If she hadn't lost the ability to speak, she would have been screaming curses.
But right now, she only had one thought.
Give me a chance to breathe so I can tell you where the fucking crown is, you psycho!
Harvey ceased the Cruciatus Curse and cast Rennervate, allowing Viper's shredded vocal cords and exhausted body to rapidly recover.
Once she regained about sixty percent of her strength and the pain began to fade, before she could even open her mouth to agree, another red light hit her.
"Heee—Aaargh!"
The soul-piercing screams began anew.
Death is a mercy compared to this.
Even Logan, who usually minded his own business, couldn't bear to watch anymore.
This cycle of breaking an enemy, healing them, and then breaking them again was far too twisted.
Logan couldn't help but advise, "Just give her a quick end!"
Harvey cast a cold glance at him. "Whoever makes me unhappy, I make sure they never know happiness again. Besides, an eye for an eye is a fundamental virtue."
"This old hag dared to insult me just now. If I don't teach her a lesson, people might mistake me for some soft-hearted saint!"
Viper's screaming lasted another ten minutes before beginning to weaken again.
"Finite Incantatem!"
The stinging pain receded instantly. Viper immediately used her trembling voice to beg.
"I... I agree... I'll give... you the crown!"
But Harvey, who had long since noticed something was off with her, had no intention of granting her wish yet.
"Crucio!"
"Heee—Aaargh...!"
The heart-wrenching screams rang out for the third time.
An hour passed.
After six full rounds of torture, and after six failed attempts to bite her own tongue to commit suicide, Viper was broken.
Her eyes were vacant, froth leaking from her lips. Even as her strength recovered, she remained as motionless as a vegetable.
Harvey shook his head in mock pity. "Still won't tell the truth? I love your spirit. Come on, let's have another go!"
At the word "continue," Viper's pupils contracted reflexively. She didn't dare play dumb anymore and frantically begged for mercy.
"I agree to give you the crown... I agree...!"
But Harvey had known the location of the Serpent Crown from her memories long ago.
The torture was just because he didn't like her.
"Avada Kedavra!"
A beam of green light snuffed out Viper's soul. The leader who had controlled Hydra from the shadows for over seventy years had finally fallen.
Harvey didn't even look at the groveling Yashida. He said to Logan, "This coward is yours to deal with. As for the poison, it will fade naturally now that she's dead."
With that, Harvey used Apparition and vanished.
Yashida swallowed hard, only to find Logan staring at him with ice-cold eyes.
"Plea—ugh!"
The sharp Adamantium claws tore through his throat, and the tycoon Ichirō Yashida vanished from the world as well.
...
Following the information from Viper's memories, Harvey arrived at a remote cave in the Hiroshima wilderness.
The cave was located on a barren hill near a nuclear blast crater. The soil was naked, no grass grew, and the air was thick with a lethal dose of radiation.
The man-made cave was only twenty meters deep. The radiation had turned the area into a dead zone.
The Serpent Crown of Set was perfectly preserved within.
The magical barrier around Harvey's body blocked the invisible radiation. He walked into the dark, chilling cave to a protruding stone altar at the back.
There sat a crown made of an unknown material, featuring seven lifelike snake heads coiled together—the Serpent Crown.
The moment he picked it up, a cold wind whipped through the cave and the ground trembled.
At the same time, Harvey felt a frigid power trying to invade his mind.
He activated Occlumency, blocking the residual power likely left behind by the elder demon Set.
Harvey pulled out a wooden sealing box carved with numerous runes. Once the crown was inside, the cold power finally vanished.
"Not bad. The crown is mine. Time to regroup with Hermione and the others."
Sensing through the magical badges, he located the three women in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Harvey opened a portal and vanished from the forbidden zone.
In an eye-blink, he appeared on the bustling streets of Shibuya at night.
It was past 8:00 PM. The streets were lined with fashion boutiques, anime stores, and department stores, all lit by a neon kaleidoscope of signs.
On the busy streets, many "Sakura girls" in school uniforms, flight attendant outfits, or sailor suits waited for sponsors to approach them.
This was Shibuya's specialty. Here, for anywhere between a few tens of thousands to a hundred thousand yen, you could enjoy the services of a young, beautiful girl.
Of course, Harvey had no interest in these "public buses." He ignored the girls offering themselves and followed his mental link into a nightclub called Club Nova, from which people were screaming and fleeing.
The dance floor was empty, but deafening electronic music still blared from the DJ booth.
The faint sound of gunfire reached his ears.
Harvey climbed the stairs to the VIP booths on the second floor. The screams and gunfire were much clearer here.
Inside a luxury booth, Wanda was firing crimson orbs of light, literally erasing yakuza members in black suits and full-body tattoos.
And I mean erasing.
Every time a crimson orb hit one of these Hand subordinates, a flash of green hellfire would consume them.
In less than a second, nothing would remain but a pile of black ash.
"Fear Witch! What did we ever do to you?!"
"Have mercy...!"