Purgatory! All Eighteen Levels!

The second blow slammed down!

Danzo pressed his forehead against the floor. The stone was cold and hard. His fingers clenched against it, his nails scraping across the slab with a shrill screech.

"Three!"

"Four!"

"Five!"

Danzo's body shook. The pain sent his muscles into spasms and nearly broke him.

His fingers gripped the floor even tighter. His nails dug into the dust between the slabs, leaving faint white scratches on the stone.

He clenched his teeth harder, the muscles in his jaw bulging like two eggs. Veins stood out along his cheeks.

But he endured it without crying out.

"Fifteen!"

"Sixteen!"

"Seventeen!"

By the twentieth blow, the corners of Danzo's mouth began to twitch. The pain had passed the limit of his endurance, and the muscles in his face trembled beyond his control.

His lips quivered nonstop. He could no longer keep his teeth clenched; they knocked together with an audible chatter.

"Thirty-one!"

"Thirty-two!"

"Thirty-three!"

By the thirtieth blow, Danzo's single eye had begun to redden. Tears gathered in the socket, blurring his swollen eye behind a watery sheen.

The beating continued!

"Forty-seven!"

"Forty-eight!"

"Forty-nine!"

By the fiftieth blow, Danzo finally broke. His will gave way.

"Aaah—!"

A scream tore from his throat, sharp and hoarse, like a rusty knife scraping glass.

Danzo's tears finally fell. They spilled from his swollen eye, ran down the bridge of his nose, mixed with the blood at the corner of his mouth, and dripped onto the stone floor.

His body began to thrash violently. He wrenched his arms backward and kicked wildly, his knees thudding against the stone again and again.

But struggling was useless. Two Security Force officers held him down, forcing him back each time he fought.

The crowd at the doorway fell silent for a moment.

Then