Even after Harry snapped at her, B-15 showed no remorse. If anything, she became even more guarded.
This mysterious sorcerer knew the TVA existed, while they knew nothing about him.
She had no idea how much he knew, but even if he only understood a few details, the difficulty of dealing with him would skyrocket.
After all, whether it was the pruning baton or the time collar, those tools worked best the first time someone encountered them. Once their actual functions were known, it became much harder for them to threaten a truly powerful opponent.
In fact, if Loki had known exactly how the pruning baton worked, the TVA might not even have been able to beat him.
And yet, despite all that, none of them showed the slightest fear.
For the sake of what they believed in, they were willing to give up their lives.
A flicker of grief passed through B-15's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by iron resolve.
"We're not pruning life, we're pruning chaos. The existence of those timeline criminals is itself a desecration of the Sacred Timeline!
If they're allowed to exist, the whole universe could be reduced to ash in a temporal war. Who do you think you are, to judge our choices?"
The wand in Harry's hand trembled faintly out of control, crimson light flashing along its length.
Looking into the hardened fanaticism frozen in B-15's eyes, he suddenly thought of the cursed parchments in Hogwarts' Restricted Section, the ones corrupted by dark magic. It was the same twisted logic, the same violent obsession dressed up as a noble mission.
The corner of his mouth curled upward. His tone carried both mockery and pity, while the light at his wand tip grew more violent.
"You're no different from the Death Eaters. You hide slaughter behind righteous excuses, yet you don't even have the courage to look directly at the blood on your own hands.
Every timeline you imprison is made of countless possible lives. I understood that long ago. True chaos has never come from circumstances themselves, it comes from fools who think they have the right to pass judgment on everything."
The veins at B-15's neck stood out. The pruning baton in her hand gave off a harsh whine, as if echoing the certainty in her voice.
"You don't understand the meaning of the Sacred Timeline at all! Every extra second those timeline criminals exist is another ticking time bomb buried under the universe."
She strode toward him, the clatter of her armor mixing with her suppressed shout.
"Our hands are stained with blood? Fine. That blood was spilled so billions of people wouldn't be swallowed by temporal collapse!
Save your cheap pity. Once you've seen the horror of a temporal war, then you can come talk to me about regret!"
The two were simply incapable of agreeing.
One had been raised and educated by the Sorcerer Supreme, and had seen enough of the world to think from many angles.
The other had been thoroughly indoctrinated by the TVA, taught to worship the Sacred Timeline and believe that everything she did was righteous.
So there was never going to be any meeting of minds between them. In the end, only force would decide who was right.
B-15 knew that even though the TVA had more Hunters, they were still at a disadvantage against an enemy this strong.
Especially against a so-called timeline criminal who knew the TVA's inner workings, they might not even be able to escape him.
So B-15 attacked first, determined to seize the initiative.
Her gaze sharpened. The pruning baton carved a vicious arc through the air as she sprang like a cheetah and drove it straight at Harry's face.
But the gap between them was simply too wide.
Even with her full strength, the distance between her and Harry was still an uncrossable chasm.
Harry casually lifted his wand. Every TVA Hunter was immediately wrapped in an unseen force and lifted into the air.
None of them could fly, and with no surface to push off from, all they could do was struggle helplessly in place.
Then B-15 suddenly hurled the pruning baton from her hand.
It cut through the air with a shrill roar as it shot toward Harry.
She had never truly expected that attack to work, but to her shock, the mysterious sorcerer didn't dodge at all. He simply reached out and caught the top of the baton in his bare hand.
Did… did they win?
That was right. She had switched it to direct pruning mode. As long as the target was struck by the top of the baton, the person would vanish completely, erased outright.
B-15 and the other Hunters stared at Harry, waiting for him to disappear.
One second passed. Then another.
Then nearly ten seconds.
Harry remained completely unchanged. Instead, he turned the pruning baton over in his hand and studied it with obvious curiosity.
B-15's pupils contracted violently. Her throat bobbed out of control.
That was impossible.
Why had touching the tip of the pruning baton done absolutely nothing to him?
No.
No one had ever survived direct contact under pruning mode, much less caught the end of the baton barehanded.
Harry slowly rotated the baton between his fingers and said with amused contempt, "You look surprised. You didn't seriously think this little stick was all-powerful and could work on every target, did you?
Against people at a certain level, this baton doesn't do anything at all. At that point, it's no more useful than a toy duster for brushing off a doll.
To them, time is basically like clay in the hands of a child, something they can knead however they please.
The principle behind its pruning mode is just exile to the end of time. As long as you can withstand the erosion of the timeline, you can ignore it entirely."
Harry had no intention of killing the Hunters in front of him.
From what he had learned, the TVA's Hunters were all timeline criminals themselves, deceived and manipulated by the TVA, much like Tony once had been.
With that in mind, Harry decided to leave a nail behind inside the TVA, something he could use later when the time came to bring the whole organization down.
So he confiscated all of their gear, leaving them only their close-fitting underlayers, then used the TemPad to open a portal back to the TVA for them.
The Hunters looked completely bewildered. They had no idea why Harry was willing to let them go when he held absolute advantage.
But a moment later, Harry said flatly, "There are many timelines beyond the Sacred Timeline that the TVA cannot observe.
And even without the TVA constantly pruning branches, those timelines are doing just fine. They haven't erupted into multiversal war.
You've been lied to. I suggest you go back to the TVA and dig through the archives. There should be clues there about the organization's real purpose."
The second he finished speaking, Harry suddenly kicked the Loki who had been trying his best to hide nearby and sent him tumbling through a portal to Asgard.
Then Harry used the TemPad to open a portal leading to another parallel universe.
The TVA seemed to possess some kind of device that suppressed extraordinary powers. Until Harry knew whether that device could suppress chaos magic, he had no intention of stepping inside.
Since ordinary portals couldn't reach other universes, dreamwalking couldn't bring his physical body along, and the TVA's TemPad could only move back and forth along the Sacred Timeline, Harry decided to search the Sacred Timeline itself for a method of reaching another universe.
Pym Particles were a very promising option.
Using the TemPad, Harry moved rapidly through the Sacred Timeline.
But before long, he stopped.
Because he had received a communication request from Wanda.
Wanda was in trouble.
…
Not long before that, the Avengers had finally decided to wage all-out war against Hydra.
Once the battle began, it would be a war on the scale of the Battle of New York itself.
First, Hydra had somehow taken control of three S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarriers and was preparing to use them in the coming war.
Second, Hydra had received a great deal of reinforcements from its multiversal headquarters.
That included dozens of superhumans injected with the super-soldier serum, more than a dozen symbiote warriors empowered by Hydra, and a massive stockpile of advanced weapons.
But the one giving the Avengers the greatest headache was, without question, Hydra's Supreme Commander.
He seemed to embody Hydra itself. Once he fully unleashed his power and merged with the symbiote, he could transform into a gigantic Hydra dozens of meters long.
In that state, he was overwhelmingly powerful. Even Tony and Thor together were no match for him.
At this point, the battle between the Avengers and Hydra had reached its final stage.
Hydra was preparing to use the Helicarriers and Insight satellites, together with big-data analysis and advanced targeting systems, to eliminate potential threats before they could even act, thereby bringing the world under control.
And that wasn't all.
At the same time, they had begun activating some kind of special high-tech device in low Earth orbit.
According to the intelligence the Avengers had gathered, once that machine fully activated, Earth in this universe would be dragged into an unknown parallel universe.
And that universe was already completely ruled by Hydra.
If that happened, then even Harry would have a hard time saving them.
After all, Harry wasn't omnipotent. He had no idea which universe Hydra originally came from.
Before Project Insight fully launched, a massive melee had already broken out beneath the three Helicarriers, the Avengers' superheroes clashing head-on with Hydra.
At first, the Avengers held the upper hand.
But the moment Captain Hydra entered the battlefield, the situation instantly turned against them.
Tony hovered in the low sky, breathing hard. He had used too much magic in the fight and burned through too much stamina. He was getting close to the point where he couldn't keep going.
He stared at the distant battlefield.
Thor, the Hulk, and the Abomination were relying on their monstrous durability to fight Hydra's Supreme Commander, who had transformed into a Hydra.
But it was obvious they weren't strong enough.
Their bodies were tough enough to let them hang on for now, but not for much longer.
Hydra's Supreme Commander lashed out with a gigantic claw and slammed it into the Hulk, tearing open the skin across his chest in one strike and exposing bone beneath.
The Hulk could heal quickly and possessed a body close to immortal, but after taking such brutal damage again and again, his strength was still dropping fast.
Tony's expression darkened as he said in a low voice, "Damn it. Are we really no match for Hydra?
Wanda, can you contact Harry right now? Without his help, I don't think we can hold out much longer!"
And just then, Tony suddenly noticed that Wanda's entire presence had changed completely.
Then a deep voice came from Wanda's body.
"Don't worry, Tony. We've got this in the bag."
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