VILLAIN'S RISING

“Hmm,” Sam pondered while touching his chin. “What’s the best way to break in?”

He was currently hovering outside a tall skyscraper. It didn’t take him long to find this tower for two reasons,

First, this was the tallest building in the city of Los Angeles. Here resided the prestigious hero, White Walker.

Second, a few months back, he and Kiara visited this place to kill White Walker.

Sam couldn’t help but remember that night. It was a fierce battle. Half of the whole city of angels was destroyed.

White Walker’s ability was to disable other users’ abilities. Sam never imagined taking him down would prove to be that difficult.

But oh boy, was he wrong. That ability was so impressive that Sam couldn’t help but take it after they killed White Walker.

Anyway, the point is they went through so much trouble to kill White Walker because he was the protector of Los Angeles.

And with him alive, obtaining the relic, Sam was after would’ve been next to impossible.

The night they killed White Walker was the perfect chance for them to take the relic. But they couldn’t do it that night because Starsuper arrived right in time before they could do something.

That’s what that night they had to retreat. After that, the heroes tripled the security of the city in the following days and made it next to impossible for any terrorist attacks to happen.

“Tsk, who will save you now?”

That night, Starsuper saved the world, or else Sam would’ve gotten his hands on the relic.

But today, Starsuper won’t be coming. No help will be coming.

Who will— Who -can- save the world now?

Determined to win, Sam canceled [Concealment] and revealed his presence to the world.

There was no point. A strong Sentry class hero had put up a barrier around the tower. There was no way Sam could breach it without letting them know his position.

Needless to say, Sam wouldn’t like that. From a young age, he had always wanted to be in control of the situation.

If he loses control of the situation, he will start to freak out and panic inwardly despite never showing those emotions on his face.

Feelings like that reminded Sam that he was just a human. So naturally, he didn’t like those feelings and would do anything to avoid them.

In other words, he would do anything to stay in control of the situation.

-BEEEP! -BEEEP! BEEEP!

Sam could hear the alarm going off inside the tower. The heroes must’ve noticed his presence.

Almost instantly, when the alarms went off, several dozens of Martian spacecraft appeared over the sky above him.

And on the ground, hundreds of heroes came out and took battle positions.

One boy. One single boy.

To defeat a single 18-19-year-old boy, the strongest heroes of the world gathered on high alert.

Not only that, but the earth had to call for help from its settlement on Mars.

Sam couldn’t help but smile at this sight. He could see the heroes on the ground sweating profusely. It was as if they knew they were fighting the personification of death.

“Samael Gracefell!”

Still hovering in his place, Sam looked above. A thunderous voice came from one of the Martian spaceships and called out his name.

“That would be me,” Sam replied jokingly, waving his hand.

“Land on the ground, get on your knees, put your hands behind your back, and surrender peacefully. If you do that, we won’t be resorting to force.”

Sam’s lips quivered as a soundless chuckle escaped his mouth. He couldn’t stop himself from laughing at these ridiculous terms.

After a second of silence, he finally shook his head to stop himself from laughing and spoke:

“Is that so? It’s a very generous offer, good sir, but I must decline it. In counter, I offer you these terms. Surrender and kneel before me. If you do that, I might not kill you.”

“So be it,” the voice thundered from the spacecraft before it said, “Team Omega! Open fire!”

As soon as those words were uttered, the spacecraft right above Sam unfolded a huge barrel from its surface, aiming it at him.

(What’s that?!) The voice in Sam’s head commented.

“An ion cannon,” Sam replied with a face devoid of any expressions. “It’s a type of particle cannon.”

As if waiting for that cue, white particles of energy instantly started clustering at the tip of the cannon.

-Kaboooom!

A condensed beam of ionized plasma rained down on Sam, slamming him onto the ground.

Dust rose and a massive crater dug out on the ground from the impact as heroes stepped back from the point of impact.

After a second or two, the ionized particle beam started to thin and eventually stopped at all.

-“Did we get him?” One of the heroes from the crowd voiced his mind.

-“Shush!” The one beside him replied. “Don’t raise flags!”

-“Quiet you both. Ready your abilities just in case.” The one in front of them cut in.

When the dust started to settle, a silhouette of a person became clear. The person stood up and stepped out from the cover of dust.

It was Sam. He was completely unharmed with not even a scratch on his body.

“That’s it?” Looking up as if challenging the heavens itself, Sam smirked. “That’s the ‘force’ you were talking about?”

“All team! Open fire!” As if to reply to Sam’s mocking, an authoritative voice echoed throughout the sky.

“Heroes! Back down!” One of the heroes shouted from the front and heeding his call all the other heroes instantly began to retreat into a safe distance.

There were around 50 spacecraft, as big as a triple-storey building, hovering over Sam with long glowing barrels coming out of them aimed at him.

“Come on!” Same yelled, beckoning the might of the Martian Empire alone.

-KABOOOOM!

Fifty massively thick condensed beams of ionized plasma rained down on a single black-haired boy, gouging out an even bigger crater than before.

Even after a few seconds of continuous firing, the ion beams did not stop raining down.

The heroes were sure that this time they had got him. But unfortunately for them, they were up against a god.

To shatter their hopes, Sam activated [Neither Manipulation] and put up a barrier of otherworldly invisible energy around him.

He started enlarging the barrier and pushing back the ion beams.

-“He-He’s fighting back!”

-“Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

-“All heroes! Prepare to engage!”

Seeing that the Progenitor was still fighting back, the heroes started getting into formations and activated their abilities.

-Whack!

-Splurt!

But before they could interfere, the space around some of them distorted, rupturing their head in an instant.

Blood spewed everywhere like a fountain as some of the heroes got their heads exploded.

-“What’s going on?!”

-“It’s one of his demons! Everyone, keep your eyes open!”

-“Those who possess sensory abilities use your power to know the enemy’s location and—”

Before the hero could finish giving his order, his head twisted in an unnatural manner, and he fell to the ground, dead.

In response, all the people with sensory abilities started searching for enemy locations while all the Sentry class heroes pulled up a barrier around them.

‘You need help, brother?’ Micheal’s voice resounded in Sam’s head, making him smile.

“Yes. You and Lucas handle these pests for me while I deal with the Martians.”

‘By your wish, brother.’

Done talking, Sam flapped the large dragon wings on his back and took off, dodging the ion beams on his way.

Nearing one of the spacecraft, Sam pulled back his fist.

-Thud!

Landing on the spacecraft, Sam threw a fierce punch, intending to gape open a hole in the UFO.

-Thunnn

“Tsk,” unfortunately, it didn’t work. So he transformed his hand into a large-sized dragon claw and decided to cut it instead.

-Swoosh!

Swinging his arm, Sam clawed through the metal of the spaceship.

-Booom!

An explosion went off, and the burning spaceship started falling down. Sam flapped his wings again, moving on to his next target.

“All teams! Create distance and attack him with ion cannons again!”

Smirking, Sam sucked in a deep breath. He had already expected it.

-FWOOOSH!

Aiming at the spaceships, Sam spat out a blazing torrent of brilliant blue flame, obliterating everything in sight.

“All troops! Discharge!”

Concluding that remaining in their spaceships would be pointless, the Martian commander ordered his troops to get out and attack Sam physically.

Of course, that was a mistake too.

The troops, clad in white suits of full body armor, jumped out of their spaceships. They had compact jet packs on their backs that allowed them to fly with fierce mobility.

The poor guys thought about using their speed to close in on Sam before he could let out another fiery breath was a good idea.

But all they did was enter his range of control.

“Die,” with a vicious smirk on his face, Sam spoke.

At his command, all the troops in his close vicinity suddenly dropped dead like flies.

-“Get back! Remember the reports! Stay away from his range of control!”

Sam looked down at the ground and saw mayhem caused by the carnage created by Lucas and Michael.

Putting both of them against those poor heroes was overkill. Only the heroes with more than a decade of experience were barely holding their own against the duo’s overwhelming power.

“Lucas, can you hear me?” Sam spoke.

‘Yes, sire. Need me to assist you?’ Lucas replied cheekily. Even though he was in the middle of a battle, his voice was as calm as ever.

A nerve twitched on Sam’s forehead, hearing Lucas’ response, “No, my dear general, I do not need your assistance. Instead, hold these Martians for me.”

Almost instantly, a light red-haired boy appeared right beside Sam.

“That is what we call assistance, sire.”

Sam wanted to punch this guy right here, but he held himself back and displayed a terrifyingly warm smile.

The smile sent shivers down Lucas’ spine. “I mean, happy to be of service, sire!”