VILLAIN'S RISING

“Told ya, mate, you should’ve listened to me and started running.”

A smirk that could only be described as vicious was plastered on Sam’s face and with his hand, he was grabbing a neck.

He was grabbing Albert’s neck. The burly guy was down on his knees, his eyes were clouded with fear and terror. He just wanted to run away but his legs weren’t working for some reason.

“Now, tell me who you are and why have you all come here?” Sam spoke, demanding some answers.

“I-I can’t tell you! They will k-kill me!” Albert answered with a deep yet shaky voice.

“Tsk,” Sam clicked his tongue at that response. “I don’t know why people are always afraid of dying when there’s so much more to be afraid of?”

As soon as he said that, Sam activated his Biokinesis and his eyes glowed in a dull shade of violet.

Albert, who noticed that, couldn’t help himself from staring into his eyes. That was his life’s biggest mistake.

In a few seconds, Sam showed Albert everything that he ever felt guilty for, he tormented him psychologically. After that, he put him in a state of illusion and tortured him for what felt like weeks for Albert.

All that happened in mere seconds. After the ordeal was done, Sam called his ability off.

“ARGHHHHH! ARGHAHAHAHA!” Albert cried out at the top of his lungs like a beast being caned to death.

(You broke him, Sam) the voice in his head remarked.

“Such a strong man and such a weak mental fortitude. I was made to experience things beyond this level from my father.” Sam shook his head in disappointment.

(Well not like you need him anymore anyway)

“True.”

Sam didn’t need him for information anymore. When he dived into his mind, Sam went through every memory he had, even the memories Albert himself had forgotten._.

Thus, everything that Albert knew was also known to Sam.

“Shush!” With that command from Sam, Albert shut his mouth. Although tears were still coursing through his cheeks, he wasn’t screaming anymore.

“So they are here to kill Phoenix because their boss had some past business with him. But that’s not all they are after, they want Phoenix’s powers.” Sam touched his chin. “Well, I highly doubt it that they can accomplish such a feat but if they do then less work for me.”

(And what are you going to do with this thing) although Sam couldn’t see the voice in his head, he knew that the “thing” here refers to Albert.

“Him?” Sam pondered before answering, “I’m thinking of making him my first test subject of the Willburn DNA experiment.”

As Sam had explained earlier to Lucas, he was intending to make demons enhanced with Willburn DNA that he acquired from Rebekah.

(Right here? Right now? Are we doing this?) Even the voice in Sam’s head was left surprised by his unanticipated declaration.

“Yes, let’s do this.” Dramatically announcing, Sam took out a small steel pill-shaped container and twisted it open.

“Open your mouth Alberty,” he said, like calling out to a dog.

Albert, like an obedient pet, obliged and opened his mouth. Sam didn’t waste another second and emptied the pill’s content into his mouth and Albert gulped it down instinctively.

“Now then, let’s give you your new look.” Placing a hand on his head, Sam spoke.

*

“Kyaaa!”

“Someone save us!”

Screams like that echoed throughout the island forest. Some girls were being surrounded by the Villains while two of their teammates/classmates were lying dead on the ground.

“End her, Zach.” One of the guys present there ordered.

Hearing his name being called out, a yellow-haired boy named Zach stepped forward and raised his hands, with his index finger pointing at one of the two girls.

“Zap” he whispered and his body was instantly embraced by yellow lightning.

Tendrils of that yellow lightning made their way to his index finger and formed a cluster, in the next moment, a lightning bolt shot out at the girl he was pointing at.

However, before the bolt of that yellow lightning could hit the girl, a red flash appeared and both of the girls vanished along with it.

The stray lightning bolt ended up hitting one of his teammates instead, injuring him and claiming his life on the spot.

“Rey!” One of the women present there cried out as soon as she saw the lightning bolt hit him. From the looks of it, she was his lover.

“I-I didn’t mean it! Where did the girls go!” Zach, in panic, started yelling.

Although before anyone could answer, or even react to the situation, all of them felt the temperature of the surroundings dropping quickly.

“What’s going on?!” A woman with blue hair asked but before anyone could reply, her question was answered when her own body started freezing.

Her lower body felt numb so when she looked down to see what was going on, she found that her lower body resembled a blue statue.

She didn’t feel cold. She didn’t feel anything before the ice crept its way to her upper body all the way to her head and claimed her life.

All the six other Villains present there were met with the same fate as well. Everyone was an ice statue now.

A woman with pink hair and blue eyes, dressed in a very inviting all-black tight body Hero costume came to the scene and started tapping all the six statues present there.

When she was done, all the ice statues exploded into white dust like snow and left behind nothing.

“Out of all the ways you could’ve killed them, Atom.” Red Runner said, coming back to the scene after getting the girls to safety.

“It’s fun this way.” The pink-haired Hero named Miss Atom replied.

Miss Atom has said to hold the ability to control atoms down to the atomic levels. She can rearrange atoms and even fuse them together.

In simple words, the building blocks of this world are her plaything.

She can disrupt someone’s atomic make-up to kill them or she can rearrange them to how they were and bring someone from the dead.

Earlier she had slowed down atomic movements of the surroundings to drop the temperature to a negative degree.

If she wanted she could’ve just given them an easy death, but she killed them slowly, making them regret their life.

She was one of the Heroes Sam had his eyes on for a long time as soon as he entered the Academy City.

Although Sam knew that she could never hope to defeat him, he also knew that many others also couldn’t hope to defeat her.

A perfect Demon General candidate if you ask him.

Red Runner only shook his head at her before tapping on his earpiece.

“We have dealt with 6 Supervillains, Iroha. That leaves us with 203.” Red Runner reported.

-“Make it 196.” Iroha reported from the other side.

-“Uh uh, mate! Make it 190!” A voice of an Englishman joined in. He was Phoenix, the immortal Superhero.

“Great, so 190 more to go. Yay.” Appearing bored, Miss Atom spoke in an uninterested tone.

-“Aww looks like our little Miss is not enjoying herself!” Phoenix commented in a teasing tone.

-Swoosh!

In the next moment, a person appeared in front of Red Runner and Miss Atom out of nowhere. It was Iroha. She had used her Teleportation ability.

-Snap!

The moment Iroha appeared, she snapped her fingers and beside her the fabric space wrapped and another person appeared.

He had a dark skin tone and an attractive face, orange hair, and red eyes. He was Phoenix.

“Ooh! This teleportation stuff always gives me a headache!” Arching his eyebrows, Phoenix commented.

“By the Phoenix,” Iroha confronted Phoenix as soon as he appeared. “Do you know why they are after you?”

“No idea.” Shrugging his shoulders, Phoenix honestly replied. “But I think their boss is nearby. Those guys I fought, they were running to the west of the island.”

“Great then, reinforcements will be arriving any minute now. We’ll end the boss and let the reinforcements deal with everyone else.” Iroha nodded.

“Wait, won’t the boss be crucial for information extraction?” Red Runner objected.

“Yeah man, and didn’t you say we’ll have to prioritize student safety?” Phoenix joined in.

“Tsk,” touching her chin, Iroha pondered over the situation for a moment.

She can order Red Runner to take all the kids to safety and come back to them, while she and Phoenix along with Miss Atom capture the boss.

Red Runner won’t have to fight and no other person on Earth is faster than him… except a few but thankfully none of them are Villains.

Miss Atom will be necessary for the boss’s capture, Iroha herself would act as the supporter while Phoenix will go on the offensive.

If things go south, then she’ll just kill the boss by teleporting his heart away from his body. Or if she couldn’t do that for some reason then she would just teleport them all to a safe location.

That was a perfect plan. So she opened her mouth to voice her suggestion, but before she could even utter a single word, Red Runner moved and kicked her.

-Thwack!

-Shrill!

The force of the kick was so high that Iroha’s body flew a few meters back before dropping to the ground and coming to a stop.

“Arghhh!” Groaning in pain and gritting her teeth in fury, Iroha got up.

“What the fuck, man?!” She complained, but her eyes widened when she saw Red Runner standing in the place she was previously standing.

What more was, a huge laser beam was being shot down at him, his body was disintegrating by the continuous heat of the laser beam.

-Shrill!

After a moment the beam stopped but Red Runner’s body was nowhere to be found. It was completely destroyed.

“What was that?!” The aloof expression on Miss Atom’s face vanished and was replaced by shock and a hint of terror.

“Up!” Phoenix shouted, making everyone look above.

They saw a huge burly black man floating in the air, looking down on them. His eyes and the insides of his mouth were glowing red, hinting that he was the one who attacked them with that laser attack.

On his head were two horns protruding out and curling backward. He moved his mouth, causing all the Heroes on the ground to up their guards, and spoke in a deep monotonous voice.

“One… Hero killed… Sire… Three to… Go.”