VILLAIN'S RISING

For a moment, the whole sky was bathed in a sea of azure blue flames. The barrage of dark matter swords that Darkstar conjured were turned to ash.

The nearby buildings that weren’t destroyed yet by the war between Sam’s demon army and heroes were now either ablaze or in the rubble.

Martial God, Darkstar, and Sea King were closest to Sam when he breathed the breath of destruction. So naturally, they both were exposed to most of the damage.

The heat from the flames scorched their bodies, and both of them sustained heavy third-degree burns.

No one was expecting that attack in the midst of the battle.

They thought they had the upper hand. They thought they were forcing Sam on the backfoot.

But they thought wrong.

They knew Sam would use his dragon transformation while fighting them because that would destroy the whole planet.

But they didn’t know he would have so much power even without his transformation!

“What was that?!” Rebekah barked. Her black caped suit was in rags, and her body was filled with cuts and burns.

Although her body was constantly regenerating, she was barely enduring the abuse from the dragons she was fighting. Even now, she was swinging her fists with all her efforts, but the dragon she was fighting had no intentions of going down.

“Don’t mind that! You and I will focus on keeping the dragons away from them!” Anthony, who was also in a similar yet slightly better state than his sister’s, yelled back. “Just stick to the plan!”

But even as he said that Anthony knew at the back of his mind that the situation below him was grim… very, very grim.

*

“Hah hah hah…” panting heavily to catch his breath, Darkstar, who had earlier felt onto his knees due to the burning pain, slowly got up to his feet.

He felt as if his lungs were on fire. Even though he was wearing armor that was made up entirely of his ‘dark matter’, he could feel the burns on his skin underneath it.

-Snap

-Thud

With a snap of his fingers, the raven-black armor cladding his body broke into chunks and fell to the ground.

As it did so, Darkstar revealed his appearance. He had white hair that had lost its pigments due to his age and illness and a chiseled face that looked hunky despite its wrinkles.

“Darkstar!” From behind, he heard a loud cry. It was from a person he was all too familiar with. It was Sage.

She was about to rush to his side, but she stopped when she saw Darkstar shaking his head.

She bit her lips and activated [Healing Aura].

Instantaneously, the burns on Darkstar’s body started to disappear, and the fire he was feeling in his lungs subsided, allowing him to breathe again.

As the pain vanished and he regained control over his other senses. He finally took a look around to see what was happening.

“…Huh?” But what he saw did nothing but disturb him even further.

Martial God’s body was nowhere to be seen as he was seemingly turned to ash by now.

While he saw the upper half of Sea King covered in fourth-degree burns. Sam was grabbing his upper body by the neck while his lower half was cleaved off.

“That’s for drawing my blood,” Sam muttered before straightening his palm and thrusting it forward into Sea King’s chest like a sword.

He then grabbed his heart and pulled it out of his body before throwing it away like some trash, “And that’s for being born ugly.”

-Thud

Dropping his body, Sam looked in front of him, directly glaring at the heroes without any spec of fear, “Two down. Six to go.”

“Jin! Nooo!” Scarlet Vampire cried out Sea King’s real name and tried to rush at his killer. “How dare you! You monster!”

“Scarlet! Get back!” Darkstar shouted, trying to get her attention but she was already too far gone.

“Fuck!” Eve, who was at a distance, saw the chaos between the heroes. Scarlet Vampire has broken the formation, so now they all would have to rush in, or they’ll lose another hero!

The only thing they had against Sam’s overwhelming strength was their unity. But now it went down the drain too.

Eve couldn’t help but bite his lower lip in frustration. This was going to be difficult.

He looked around and saw Eagle Claw laying on the ground. He was not even moving a muscle after what Sam had whispered in his ears.

It made him wonder, “What did he whisper to him?”

“Eve!” Darkstar called him out of his thoughts.

“Tsk,” clicking his tongue, Eve ironed his determination. “Fine, let’s do this!”

Darkstar and Eve dashed toward Sam in unison as if it was something they had practiced beforehand.

Not even a word was uttered among them, but they both knew what each other was thinking.

The plan was simple. They will let Scarlet Vampire take the front. As soon as they see an opening, Darkstar will engage Sam.

Meanwhile, Dead Weight would use his gravity powers from a distance and hold Sam in one place.

As soon as that is done, Eve would use his ultimate move— the ‘Dragon’s Judgment’ at its full potential and turn Sam’s body into ash.

Sam’s regeneration is great. But it’s not absolutely unlike Willburns. He can’t recover if there’s nothing left of his body to regenerate from.

So if carried out perfectly, this plan would eliminate the biggest threat to mankind.

Of course, simple doesn’t mean easy. So even if the plan was rather simple, carrying it out would prove difficult.

“Haaa!” Letting out a fierce battle cry, Scarlet Vampire clustered a godly amount of crimson energy around her leg and performed a spinning kick.

Sam, easily dodging such a see-through attack, clenched his fist and threw it forward at Scarlet’s face.

Before his fist could connect and gape open a hole in Scarlet’s face, Darkstar jumped in front of her with crossed arms over his chest and blocked Sam’s fist.

“Be chained, you devil!” He uttered, and several raven black chains erupted from the ground, wrapped themselves around Sam, and held him in his place.

But Darkstar knew that wasn’t going to be enough. So he yelled for help, “Dead Weight, now!”

“I got it!” Dead Weight shouted back and activated his ability to its fullest.

Almost instantly, he grabbed Scarlet by the waist and hopped a few meters back in the distance to safety.

As if waiting for that cue, an immense pressure dropped on Sam. It felt as if the world itself had fallen on his shoulders.

Crevices formed beneath his foot as the ground itself started to crack.

“Khkkk!” Unable to bear the pressure any longer, Sam fell to one knee.

-Tip -Tip

“H-He can’t escape! Now is y-your chance!” Blood was starting to drip through his nose, clearly showing how far Dead Weight was pushing himself.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Eve closed in on Sam in an instant.

Sage grabbed Eagle Claw and gave a shoulder to Dead Weight. They all rushed to secure a good amount of safe distance along with Scarlet Vampire and Darkstar.

Darkstar raised his hand, and several dark triangle-shaped shields, as big as multistorey buildings, conjured in the sky and dropped to the ground, stacking one by one in front of the five heroes.

Seeing that everyone had gotten to safety, Eve nodded.

He then grasped Sam’s head, who was still on one knee, and stared dead into his eyes before muttering, “Dragon’s Judgment.”

-KABOOOOOOM!