VILLAIN'S RISING

-Thwack!

-Thwack!

“Are you exhausted, Apocalypse boy?” Lucas mocked.

Around him, the lush greenery that this forest previously had to offer was being destroyed, being burned down to the ground.

Lucas himself was drenched in blood that seemed to be gushing out from several wounds on his body. Which should’ve been practically impossible since no physical force could touch him.

In front of him was standing a golden-haired boy who proclaimed himself to be a Supervillain named Apocalypse.

Around the golden-haired lay two unconscious bodies. One belonged to Micheal and the other belonged to Luke.

“No, but you seem like you’re about to pass out from blood loss any second now.” The golden-haired boy replied to Lucas’ mockery.

“Yeah yeah, go ahead and act smug while you can! My sire will be arriving here any moment now!” Lucas barked before activating his ability again.

Several rocks lying all around Lucas’ feet shot flying at the golden-haired boy with an incomprehensible speed.

However, as if they all hit some kind of an invisible wall, all of the rocks were either deflected around him or were crushed by hitting that invisible wall due to their own speed.

“Tsk,” Lucas clicked his tongue in frustration. “What the fuck is your ability?!”

He was fighting the golden-haired boy for the last few hours but he still failed to deduce what his opponent’s ability was.

‘Do I need to transform in my Demon Form?’ That thought crossed Lucas’ mind but he immediately discarded it._.

He didn’t turn into his Demon form for two simple reasons.

First, he was instructed to not change in his secondary form unless Sam himself orders him to.

Second, he was afraid about reinforcements arriving and seeing him in his Demon form? Or worse! What if Starboy arrives and witnesses him in his changed form?

“My ability is something your tiny brain could never comprehend. And by the way, who is this sire of yours?” Knitting his eyebrows in a frown, Apocalypse asked.

“My sire? He’s a fucking God! So be ready for when he arrives here-” before Lucas could finish his threat, an invisible force akin to a moving truck hit him and sent his body flying a few meters back.

-Thrash!

“Kuhuu!” Violently coughing, he slowly got himself up from the ground.

Even with his ability active, Lucas couldn’t understand how something hit him? Nothing can physically hit him! So then how?

Anything that has a force and mass can be manipulated by Lucas. If something is hitting him that means it’s lacking either one of those things.

But nothing can hit something if it doesn’t possess a mass or a force! So then how?!

“Haaa,” the golden-haired supervillain heaved a short yet deep sigh. “This is getting boring. Time to kill you and then find Phoenix to kill him.”

-Snap

As soon as he said that, Apocalypse snapped his fingers and his eyes glowed in a tint of yellow.

However, before anything could happen an authoritative voice rang out throughout the surroundings, startling Apocalypse and relieving Lucas.

“Dismiss!” The voice spoke and suddenly Apocalypse felt his ability turning off by itself.

“Wh-What was that?!” Frowning in confusion, Apocalypse spoke before turning around and looking for the source of the voice.

He found that a boy with black hair and matching eyes was leisurely walking toward him as if he was blind and couldn’t see all the destruction around him.

“So you are the ‘monster’ my General spoke of?” Visibly disappointed, Sam walked toward the golden-haired boy like he was taking a walk in the park.

“Who the fuck are you now?!” Apocalypse clamored for the black-haired boy’s identity.

“I’m here to kill you, of course.” Sam spoke in a ‘isn’t that obvious’ tone.

“You?! You will kill me?! Do you even know who I am?!” The golden-haired boy barked, clearly furious by Sam’s calm and baseless proud demeanor toward him.

“And Lucas, I’m disappointed in you.” Paying no mind to the golden-haired barking dog, Sam confronted Lucas, who was barely standing on his feet right now.

“I’m ashamed of myself, sire!” Lucas instantly earnestly started apologizing while dropping his head. “But I couldn’t do anything because I failed to discern his ability.”

Touching his chin after hearing that from Lucas, Sam faced Apocalypse and spoke: “Is that so? Mind telling me what your ability is, mate?”

“Oh yes, I’ll tell you!” Sarcastically replying to Sam, Apocalypse’s eyes glowed golden, indicating that he has activated his ability.

However, before he could deal any damage to Sam, his ability turned off again by itself.

“What the fuck?!” Clearly confused and irritated by what was happening, Apocalypse cried out in frustration.

But after a second, a sudden realization hit him. He widened his eyes as he took a look at the black-haired boy once more before he spoke: “That ability– That was White Walker’s ability! It was, wasn’t it?!”

“Ayy mate, you’re a smart one, aren’t you” Smirking slyly, Sam commented before coming face to face with him. “So, care to answer my question now? What’s your ability?”

Gritting his teeth, the golden-haired boy replied: “Why don’t you let me use it and find out for yourself?!”

“Ain’t no joy like discovering, right?” Sam smirked again. “But I’m not stupid. What if your ability is something really strong? Can’t let you use that on me, right?”

“You fucker!” Apocalypse barked again before throwing a punch directly aimed at Sam’s face.

But his punch passed through Sam as if he was punching the air.

Widening his eyes at that display, Apocalypse was left too stunned to even utter something.

“Okay, let’s not resort to violence, yeah?” Sam calmly said before activating his ability.

Suddenly, Apocalypse felt his legs going numb and he fell face-first to the ground.

-Thud

“Wh-What’s happening?!” He tried to scream so that his mates could hear him, but he suddenly felt his voice is stuck in his throat.

“Shush.” Sam placed his foot on Apocalypse’s head and casually spoke: “No one is coming to save you. Your friends and facing students of the Academy. Heroes will not be coming for another half an hour, and even if they do come early, they’ll just kill you before me.”

Looking into Sam’s abyss-like eyes, the golden-haired boy felt his gut-wrenching. Apocalypse had never felt this feeling that he was feeling right now.

‘Is this… Is this what they call fear?’ He thought in his head. ‘Am I afraid?!’

“Yes, yes you are afraid.” As if reading his mind, Sam answered before taking his foot off the golden-haired boy’s face. “Now, only open your mouth to answer my questions. Who are you?”

Slowly and submissively, Apocalypse opened his mouth to speak his answer. He didn’t dare to try and scream for help.

He felt a feeling in his spine, a feeling that told him to obediently follow every one of Sam’s commands.

“I-I’m Apocalypse… I don’t have a given name, Apocalypse is my name.” The golden-haired boy revealed.

“And what’s your ability?” Sam questioned.

“I… I…” Apocalypse seemed to be reluctant about answering that question, so Sam activated his ability again. This time, he controlled his mind.

“Let’s try it again, what’s your ability?” Sam repeated.

“N-Neither manipulation… My ability is Neither manipulation.”

“Neither? What’s that?” Sam frowned in confusion. He had never heard of such ability.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be following the laws of physics of this world.” Lucas commented, coming to stand behind Sam.

(Neither Manipulation refers to being able to manipulate one of the several other dimensions. He draws energy from Neither dimension and conjures it into this world to bend this world’s law. He’s not strong enough to wield it masterfully yet, or else White Walker’s ability wouldn’t have been able to stop him…) the voice in Sam’s head replied.

“Dayum, such a powerful ability.” Sam commented, genuinely impressed.

“I couldn’t quite catch it, sire.” Lucas replied, thinking Sam said something to him.

Ignoring Lucas, Sam continued: “What is such a great power doing in the hands of this mortal? A power such as this belongs to a God like me, no?”

(That’s right. Take it from him. He doesn’t deserve such power! Only you do! You are the God of this world after all!)

Nodding, Sam voiced his last question: “Now tell me this, why are you hunting Phoenix? Although I think I already know the answer.”

Like a puppet, Apocalypse began answering Sam’s question. “3 years ago, Phoenix started a new religion. This idea of a new religion was corrupting our people’s minds. There can only be one true religion! I tried telling him this many times, but he ignored our warnings.

“So we decided to give him a severe warning this time. We decided to give a warning to the world! There can only be one true religion! And there can only be one true God! These teenagers don’t know what they are choosing in their life-!”

Before Apocalypse could finish any more of his mindless babbling, Sam shut all of his organs down. His heart stopped pumping and the neurons in his brain instantly short-circuited, killing him in an instant.

(He may be Immortal, don’t take any risks and extract his ability now!)

Nodding again to the voice in his head, Sam activated his ability and his eyes glowed in a shade of violet.

But even the violet glow couldn’t hide the glint of madness in his eyes.

“I don’t fucking care about your religion wars, but you were right. There can only be one God, and that’s me.”