VILLAIN'S RISING

“Woah, that was tough….”

“If you find that tough, you need some training. Maybe train with your father the next time you see him. Oh, by the way, I turned your father into a demon too.”

“Shut up— WAIT WHAT?! I mean, now that you mention it, I can feel him! Woah! You really did it, huh? Did you backstab him?”

“Yeah. I called him under the guise of help and ambushed him as soon as he came. Then killed him and revived him as one of us. However, he’s staying quiet, not talking too much. Guess he’s still sour that I broke his trust.”

“Hah! Served him right!”

As soon as Kiara, Sam, and two of his clones exited the lift to proceed to the basement, they were greeted by a squad of heroes guarding the entrance.

All it took was one flick of Sam’s fingers for half of them to drop dead.

The other half was taken care of by Kiara. She had to deal with some strong ones.

Of course, Sam would rather eat dirt than admit Kiara did good, so he feigned ignorance instead.

That, in turn, made Kiara more pouty and annoying than usual. Although Sam felt annoyed, he found this feeling quite nostalgic.

The feeling he felt was similar to how you would feel when you’d found your dog laying dead on the floor, only to find out later that he was just sleeping.

Did that analogy make sense?

No?

Nevermind then.

Currently, the duo, along with clones, were at the gates of the basement.

“Stay here and guard the entrance,” Sam ordered his clones.

He then turned to the silver-haired girl and spoke, “Kiara, you head to the surface and help others. Don’t let Anthony or Rebekah get in. Or at least try to stop them for as long as possible.”

“By your wish, sire!” She replied almost instantly, like an obedient maid.

After performing a short bow, Kiara instantly broke through the ceiling and flew out of the tower to assist others in the battle.

Nodding, Sam turned around to face two giant black iron gates.

Without hesitation, Sam punched them and broke down the doors that obscured him from entering the basement of the tower.

-Thwaaam!

-Thud!

The heavy iron doors fell back, clearing the way to the basement.

“Woah,” Sam was left amazed as soon as he stepped inside.

More than a basement, it was a dungeon.

Stone walls and cobblestone ground. Some ancient gibberish was painted on the walls. And instead of light bulbs or tube lights, the whole area underground was lit by the torches packed neatly on the walls.

“Did we time travel?” Sam laughed.

(This place was built during the dark ages. Electricity was a luxury back then. They made this dungeon to store the precious relics from falling into the hands of the Progenitor. See those torches. They are relics too. Albeit not something that could help during battle, they burn for eternity.)

“Huh,” Sam arched his eyebrows in awe. “So back then, they built this dungeon for this reason. And after that, they built a freaking tower on top of that. Wait, how do you know all this again?”

(Doesn’t matter. Look ahead.)

At the voice’s instruction, Sam looked up front. He saw a stone podium. On the top of that podium was sprouting out a… sapling?

But it was no ordinary sapling, though. It was completely white and enveloped in a bright, starry glow.

“A sapling?” Sam frowned.

(No, you brain-dead retard. It’s my— our goal. It’s the relic we’ve been searching for, the Branch Of The Tree Of Life. Although they have emptied almost all of the other relics, they couldn’t move this, huh?)

“That is it? It doesn’t look like a branch, though. Wait, what do you mean?” Sam questioned, visibly confused. “What do you mean they couldn’t remove it?”

(Well, you see, whoever tries to touch that relic or tries to move it from its place, activates it. Once activated, the one who touched it or tried to move it has to use its power, or they’ll die. Meaning they have to revive a dead person from their memories, or they’ll be dead. Why is that such a problem? Because 9 out of 10 times, the person who returns comes back deprived of their sanity. They come back screaming, `I was happy. Why did you bring me back to this life` or `Let me get back to my next life!` or stuff like that)

“Spooky. Feels like it’s out of some middle school’s urban legend or something,” Sam commented. “Couldn’t they move it without touching it?”

(It won’t matter if you touch it or not, if you try to move it, you’ll activate it.)

Sam didn’t know this. In fact, he didn’t know anything about the relic aside from the fact that it could bring people back to life.

And that the people it brought back 9 out of 10 times were on the verge of insanity.

“Wait,” right then, it hit Sam. He realized something. “You told me this could break my limiters? How? What should I do?”

(Don’t fret. Just do as I say, and you’ll be fine.) The voice assured.

“Okay,” Sam nodded.

(Go ahead and touch it.)

“Wait… touch it? Won’t that–”

p-a- n-d-a-n-0-v-e-l、(c)om (Sam, just do as I say. You’ve always done just as I said, and look, we’ve turned out fine, right? So come on, go ahead and touch it.)

“O-Okay.”

Sam’s ability was broken. Being able to manipulate the physical form of life— biology? Only a god could do that.

But he was told his ability was capable of much more than that.

When his father passed this ability onto him, he told Sam that he must break the ‘chains.’

Back then, Sam didn’t know what it meant. But then, the voice in his mind started talking to him and told him that it meant limiters.

There were limiters put on his ability.

The first Progenitor put those limiters when he passed down his ability. Why did he do that? So that the person’s body he passed down his ability to could handle the strain of his god-like powers.

According to the voice in Sam’s head, at his full strength, Sam could manipulate Life itself.

But there was one thing Sam could never quite understand. There were no records mentioning Progenitor having a hold of such god-like power.

And if he had such power, Starsuper couldn’t have defeated him.

Manipulating life itself goes way beyond manipulating biology. It means having control over someone’s existence.

If Progenitor had that kind of power, he could not only just have killed the Progenitor, he could’ve erased him from existence itself.

(Sam, get the fuck out of your thoughts.)

Shaking him out of his thoughts was the voice in Sam’s head.

“Mm?” Coming back to reality, Sam realized his goal was right in front of him.

(Go, touch it.)

Taking in long deep breaths, Sam calmed down his raging heart. He slowly approached the glowing sapling with heavy, determined steps.

After nearing it, Sam moved his hands and reached out to it.

But right before his fingers could make contact with the sapling, Sam stopped.

(Sam, what are you doing? Go ahead and touch it already!) The voice hurried.

“Can I trust you?”

(… …)

Silence.

As soon as Sam uttered those words, the world fell into utter silence.

After a moment or two, the voice spoke

(What do you mean?)

“I mean, are you on my side? Can I really trust you?”

(…Of course, you can trust me! I’ve always been on your side! Why are we having this talk right now?! Go ahead and touch it!)

“Hmm,” Sam hummed. “That’s right. You have always been by my side. When everyone left me, you were there. And thus, I trust you with my life. I just wanted to hear you say it.”

(…Sure, buddy. Yeah, you can trust me.)

A faint, happy smile formed on Sam’s face.

“Thank you.”

Taking in a deep breath, he uttered something underneath his breath and touched the brilliantly glowing white sapling.