Lord of Cinder in American Comics

In the original New York, Kingpin ruled the underworld, treating darkness as a business, buying and selling it. While this fostered crime, it also established some rules.

After the Defenders put Kingpin in prison, New York's underground became even worse.

But things are different now. Kingpin has reformed, and those who tried to cause trouble were forcibly suppressed by Ash and George. Even for released convicts with no other means of livelihood, Kingpin can provide them with a job.

This two-pronged approach has improved New York's environment immeasurably. While some crimes of passion are unavoidable, organized crime falls within George's purview.

Investigation, evidence collection, and arrests take time, and Matt and his team's actions resulted in George losing several undercover agents, some of whom were even forcibly beaten by Matt and died in an unknown alley.

This was something Matt did in the name of vigilante justice. For his so-called ideals, he gathered the other three together, but their first alliance was ruined by Steve's interference.

In this world, heroes are the mainstream, but that doesn't mean that so-called heroes can do whatever they want. The vast majority of people who make up the world are ordinary people struggling in life.

"Let's go catch the next one!"

The Fake Detective Agency is an agency opened by Jessica Jones after she got rid of the Purple Man. She uses the occasional business that comes her way to numb herself with alcohol and live a life of debauchery.

A portal sparkling with fire opened inside the office, and Wanda and Yelena walked in from the other side.

Yelena kicked at the bottles scattered on the floor, glanced at the mountain of garbage bags by the door, and pinched her nose at the strange smell in the room, saying with slight disgust, "This smells like Alexei who hasn't showered in half a month. Is she even a woman?"

Wanda couldn't resist the smell either, so she opened the portal a little wider and waved her hand to let the air from the other side into the messy house.

Yelena looked at the power Wanda released with every move and said with some envy, "Can I learn this? Recently in class, Kacharus has been talking about the twelve ways to use the fireball spell, but I can't seem to learn it. I want to try something else."

Wanda looked at Yelena and asked curiously, "Does casting a fireball require a technique? Didn't the teacher teach you that?"

"So how do you use it?"

"That's it? You can just reach out and get it?"

Wanda flipped her left hand, and the magical fire instantly ignited, forming a fireball in her palm. To demonstrate her skill, Wanda even shaped the fireball into the shape of the solar system.

"Never mind what I said..."

Yelena muttered a complaint under her breath, lamenting how different people are, before heading off to find their destination.

"There's no kitchen! No bedroom! No balcony either, and even the sunflowers on the balcony have been scorched to death."

After inspecting a room, Yelena would shout loudly, as if venting the contempt she had just received.

After searching everywhere, neither of them found the person they were looking for.

"Damn it, where is she?"

Yelena angrily kicked a trash bag next to the door, but instead kicked a soft body.

Jessica rolled over out of the trash bag, lay on the floor, rubbed her chest where she had just been kicked, and squinted at the two people standing in the room.

Jessica closed her eyes again, reached for a bottle, put it under her head, and said weakly, "No work today, come back tomorrow..."

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Chapter 377: Black Widow's Follow-up Revenge

Seeing Jessica Jones asleep again, Yelena stood with her hands on her hips, looking angrily at Jessica on the ground, then turning to Wanda, as if asking, 'What should we do?'

Wanda crouched down, nudged the drunkard on the ground, and said, "Miss Jessica, we've come to ask you what you know about the Purple People?"

Jessica hadn't fallen asleep; she was still partially conscious. But upon hearing that name, Jessica tensed up instantly, curling up like a wounded animal and covering her head with her arms.

Yelena looked at Jessica, who was running away, and felt a little unhappy. After all, she had also been manipulated for many years, but she was able to break free. She hoped that Jessica, who had the same experience, could do the same.

Yelena reached out and pulled Jessica off the ground, saying, "Get up! What kind of behavior is this, crying and running away like this!"

Jessica was being held by the arm by Yelena, and she was getting annoyed by Yelena's relentless nagging. Jessica subconsciously swung her fist and punched Yelena.

After throwing the punch, Jessica belatedly realized that her punch was far beyond what an ordinary person could withstand. In the past, people who were punched by her were considered to have held back if they were left with a whole body.

Jessica got up from the ground and looked in Yelena's direction. In the distance, she saw a bright blue shield that had blocked Jessica's attack.

Yelena, still shaken, looked at the magic shield that had suddenly appeared in front of her, then turned to look at Wanda beside her, patted her small chest and said, "Now I know why I asked you to come along. That punch could flatten me."

Wanda glared at the impetuous Yelena, then said to Jessica, who had sat up, "Miss Jessica, we have some questions for you, about that person..."

Wanda didn't mention the name "Purple Man" again; she had noticed that Jessica had a stress reaction to the name.

Picking up the half-empty bottle of wine from the ground, Jessica, emboldened by the alcohol and suppressing her inner turmoil, asked, "Who are you?"

"We are mages from the Dragon Academy. You should know something about the Dragon Academy, right?"

Jessica carefully observed Wanda and the other woman. Her eyes, which were wide open due to the light, inevitably squinted again. Rubbing her eyes, Jessica groped for the bottle she had just put down on the ground.

Seeing Jessica's terrible state, Wanda sighed inwardly and continued, "We want to get information from you; it's very important to us."

Jessica snorted coldly, saying disdainfully, "What? Does the Dragon Academy also need methods to manipulate people?"

You'd better know what you're talking about!

A fireball appeared in Wanda's left hand, as if she was ready to fight at the slightest provocation. For her, the Dragon Academy was more than just a home; it was a divine court in her faith, and Wanda would never allow anyone to slander it.

Yelena quickly stepped in front of Wanda and pulled her behind her.

Yelena blocked Wanda's view with her body and said to Jessica, "My sister and I were also manipulated before. Have you heard of Black Widow? We were all controlled by Drekoff using a biochemical method. Later, when we were investigating Black Widow's air base, we found out that someone had traded this method to Drekoff many years ago. And that person is also your target..."

Jessica never imagined that there was someone else in the world who had suffered the same fate as her. Once she began to empathize, all of Jessica's negative feelings towards the person in front of her disappeared, leaving only a shared desire for revenge.

Jessica got up from the floor, nearly slipping on a bottle, and shook her hangover head, asking, "What did you find out?"

"After Drekoff made contact with a Yugoslav spy named Zebdia Kirgrave, he initiated the Black Widow training program, which involved someone whose skin and hair were purple."

Jessica murmured, "The Purple Man!"

After uttering the name that terrified her, Jessica crushed the bottle in her hand. The splattering liquor caused Wanda to stumble back a few steps.

Yelena continued, "So, we need the information you have; it's crucial for our revenge!"

With the same enemy, Jessica was no longer as wary as before. During those terrible days when she was controlled by the Purple Man, her soul had been resisting until she fell into the abyss.

Now that she has a chance for revenge, Jessica will not let it slip by.

After putting on a denim jacket, Jessica said, "Let's go, we're going to that Dragon Academy. How many of you are there?"

Yelena looked at Wanda when asked this question, and Jessica followed suit.

Wanda said, "Dragon Academy currently has 2352 students, and the two major knight orders, Soul Eaters and Ringed Knights, together have 4514 members. This does not include teachers and others..."

Jessica frowned and asked again, "I'm asking how many of you are being manipulated. Didn't that blonde girl say that all of them, the Black Spiders, are being manipulated?"

"It's the Black Widows! We're not counted within the Dragon Academy; only a select few with exceptional talent study magic there. There are 512 Black Widows who have been manipulated."

Upon hearing this number, Jessica's pupils contracted. She couldn't imagine that so many people besides herself shared the same fate.

Nodding to Yelena, Jessica picked up another bottle of wine, hesitated for a moment, then threw the bottle directly into the trash in the corner.

Upon seeing this, Wanda reached out and began to draw a portal in the air.

Only after she stepped through the portal did Jessica forcefully pull at her face; the touch and pain told her it wasn't a hallucination.

Wanda nodded to Yelena and left. This mission was suddenly assigned to her by Constantine, and now that it was complete, she was going to report to Constantine.

Yelena showed Jessica information about Dragon Academy and Black Widow.

Jessica asked, "Who was that redhead just now? By the way, can I learn magic?"

"Wanda is the fastest learner among all the students; she can quickly master most spells. Everyone is speculating that she might succeed Constantine. As for learning magic, do you have a doctorate? Or are you exceptionally talented?"

"You need a doctorate to study magic? This isn't a research university, is it? Actually, my high school grades were pretty good, really!"

Yelena could see that Jessica, now with hope and having escaped her own abyss, was letting loose a bit of her true nature. However, she didn't correct her; almost all Black Widows had this experience.

Amid Jessica's excited shouts, Yelena led her on a tour of the entire Dragon Academy.

The Bureau of Control soldiers arrived late, just after the portal inside Jessica's house was closed.

"Report: No target detected!"

Ash yawned and said, "Then let's move on to the next target, the Hand and the Guild Building. Remember, finish off all the corpses with a shot, blow off their heads to count as a kill."

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Chapter 378: The Answer is Written on the Riddle

While Ash was launching a massive crackdown on the Hand and the Guild, Geralt was standing with Hill in an observation room of an interrogation room in Las Vegas, looking at the man in the orange prison uniform across from them.

"I really didn't expect that the answer was written on the riddle itself. The so-called 'doing despicable things in the name of saints' is actually this!"

Hill complained about how much she had racked her brains these past few days. Ever since Geralt told her that prophecy, she had gathered a whole bunch of theologians and historians just to figure out the meaning of that inexplicable statement.

As a result, the answer to this sentence was found in the morning news report of the tea restaurant.

The man in the interrogation room is Gabriel Cortez, Mexico's largest laundry detergent manufacturer and distributor. His family-run business monopolizes the laundry detergent market throughout South America. And his new...

And their family name is Gabriel, so selling laundry detergent is nothing short of using the name of saints to do despicable things!

To be honest, Geralt didn't expect to find the information so easily. Originally, he just planned to find an opportunity to trick a few demons into opening the Hell portal.

As a result, S.H.I.E.L.D. found this big fish; they really did find Mephisto's followers on Earth just by relying on that one sentence.

Geralt was practically pressed against the glass, staring at Gabriel Cortez across from him, whose hellish aura was so intense it seemed to overflow.

Seeing Geralt's state, Hill slapped him hard on the back, causing Geralt to slump down, clutching his chest and breathing heavily.

Hill helped Geralt up and asked, "Are you still not well?"

"That's about it. Once I exile Carthus to Hell, my process of turning into the dead will end."

As Geralt spoke, he took out a bottle of Goddess's Blessing, took a careful sip, and then let out a long sigh of relief.

Hill, supporting Geralt, asked, "Should we have the Bureau of Investigation transfer the prisoner? They'll be transferring him to the death row at 3:30 tomorrow morning. This is an opportunity."

"Why hand him over? He'll definitely escape. Mephisto won't keep his underlings in cages; he needs more corrupted souls."

Hearing Geralt's words, Hill didn't say anything more. At the same time, she understood Geralt's idea: to play the long game.

Leaving the observation room, Geralt suddenly broke free from Hill's support, turned the bottle of Goddess's Blessing that he had just finished drinking upside down, and used the Water of Life that he carried with him to catch the remaining two drops.

Geralt gave Hill a wink and then opened the interrogation room door himself.

Before Gabriel Cortez could react, Geralt held up the bottle and poured the Water of Life over his head.