VILLAIN'S RISING

One month had passed. Midterms were about to start and students were anything but calm.

“You’ll have your first midterm tomorrow. There will be a written test and a physical test.” A female instructor informed the students. She was the replacement of Iroha.

While everyone was panicking or anxious after hearing that, Sam just had a bored expression on his face.

He knew their worries were all for naught. The midterms they were so worried about won’t even be happening.

-Ding

Right then, Sam heard his mobile’s notification sound.

He took out his phone and looked at who it was only to find that Marcel had texted him.

[Tomorrow is the day] The text read out.

Sam looked at it for a few seconds before typing his reply and sending it.

[Are you ready? A war might– No, a war will break out.]

Sam had already told him about Phoenix’s death. And he had also told him that he was moving his plans early.

There were three phases to Sam’s plan.

One, revive the Dragons and unleash his Demons on the Academy City.

Two, while the Heroes will be distracted, he will travel to Los Angeles and take a hold of their relic.

Three, he will use the relic to break his limiter and use his full powers.

Ding-

Another notification sound shook Sam out of his daze and made him look at the phone in his hand._.

[We’re ready. Do what you must!]

Sam couldn’t help but pity Marcel. A man this great can only be defeated by trusting the wrong person.

“Also, as you all might know, there have been many disappearances going around the City these days. Although Heroes are investigating the cause, you all are advised to keep your guard up.” The female instructor warned.

“Use your ability if you must. You all are allowed to kill for self defence.” She continued.

‘Wow, they are even giving them license to kill?’ Sam arched his eyebrows.

He glanced around the class and saw that many students were not present. In fact, the strength of the class was cut down to half.

Many had already left the Academy City while some were taking leaves.

Everyone was scared. How could they not be?

First that incident on the Island. And now the people were disappearing from the City.

If only everyone knew that they weren’t actually disappearing but they were being turned into Demons.

“The class is really empty nowadays huh?” Seeing Sam looking around the class, Drake spoke up from behind his seat.

“Yeah,” Sam nodded. “Even Anthony is not present.”

“How could he come to the Academy when his sister is among the missing ones too?” Robin joined in with a concerned sigh.

“True, I hope she’s fine.” Drake said in a similar worried tone.

As soon as the news about Rebekah’s disappearance spread, the City went on high alert.

Sentries started roaming the streets and a night curfew was initiated.

Somehow they managed to stop the news from reaching outside the borders of Academy City.

They manipulated every piece of published media to avoid creating a mass panic.

If everyone knew that the daughter of the strongest Hero had disappeared again, along with some locals of the city this time, the population was sure to panic.

‘Sigh, I hope he’s keeping an eye on her.’ Sam thought inwardly.

He has instructed Lucas to keep an eye on Rebekah and take the time off the Academy.

However, Rebekah wasn’t the only problem he was worried about.

Sam knew that Starsuper wasn’t an idiot. He has probably already sensed that something was up.

But Sam had trust in his capabilities. He had a simple yet quite effective plan.

However, simple doesn’t mean easy.

Sam also knew that executing his plan won’t be easy.

*

“You mean you know where she is?!” Anthony slammed his hand on the table.

“I think she’s somewhere in the City.” Arthur nodded.

Currently both Anthony and Arthur were in Arthur’s cabin. They were discussing what to do next.

It’s been one month since Rebekah disappeared and Anthony was anything but calm right now.

“Then it’s simple! We will storm the city with Heroes and find her!” Anthony nodded and took out his phone.

Before he could do anything, Arthur grabbed his hand.

“What are you doing?” Anthony asked with a frown.

“That’s what he wants us to do.” Arthur spoke calmly.

“What do you mean?” Confused even more, Anthony questioned.

“Why do you think Rebekah disappeared just a month before midterms? He gave us enough time to figure out that she is in the City too.” Arthur said with a meaningful look.

But Anthony was still clueless as to what his father was referring to. What does it matter? They should just get to searching for her already.

“Father, we don’t have time for these useless talks!” Anthony insisted but Arthur still didn’t let go of his hand.

“You don’t understand. He wants us to search for her so that he may do something at the first midterm test tomorrow!” Arthur finally made his point clear.

The timing was too much of a coincidence.

Rebekah was kidnapped just a month before midterms while some people were also being disappeared all this time.

There was no doubt about it. The Progenitor was playing with them.

Hearing that, Anthony calmed down. Arthur let go of his hand and continued.

“He’s trying to divide our forces. Not every Hero throughout the globe can come to the Academy City in such a short notice.

“So what he’s trying to do is divide the forces that we already have in this City. Most of our sentries are already on guard duty for the past whole month. They are already exhausted.

“If we storm the city with every Hero we have at our disposal to search for Rebekah, we will give him the moment he was waiting for.” Arthur sighed.

It was truly a tough choice. Yes, a choice. Sam was giving them two bad choices to choose from.

Either search for Rebekah and lose the City, or abandon Rebekah and fight him for the City.

“So, what if we just postpone the midterms and initiate a full code red curfew?” Anthony suggested.

-Screech

The door to the cabin swung open and a voice came from behind Anthony.

“That won’t do anything.”

Anthony turned back to see who it was while Arthur just raised his eyebrows at the unexpected guest’s arrival.

It was Eve Dragonheart. The head of the Dragonheart clan.

Although the Dragonhearts and Willburns had a rivalry in the past, the reason being that WillBurns were the cause of Dragons extinction.

But despite that, Eve and Arthur, both had a great amount of respect for each other in their hearts.

Eve, belonging from a clan who knew Willburns weren’t humans, respected Starsuper to still protect a world that wasn’t his.

While Arthur respected Eve for his morals. Even though Willburns executed all the Dragons and started a war with Dragonhearts, as soon as Eve became the head he called for cease fire.

“Eve, come!” Standing up from his chair, Arthur welcomed Eve. Seeing that, Anthony got up from his seat too.

“My secretary didn’t notify me of your arrival.” Arthur said in a surprised tone.

“Yes, I came from the window.” Eve nodded before taking a seat casually. As if coming from a window was a normal thing to do.

“We are on the 27th floor!” Anthony frowned.

“You guys aren’t the only ones who can fly,” Eve smirked before continuing. “I heard that Drake is in the same class as you. Thank you for taking care of him.”

Anthony mindlessly nodded after witnessing Eve’s bright charisma.

The man was indeed charismatic. He didn’t have thousands of fan pages on his name for nothing.

But before long, Anthony quickly remembered something. “Wait, why won’t it matter?”

Eve took a deep breath and thought of the best way to reply to that question as calmly as possible.

“Because I think his end goal is to revive the Dragons.”

“What?!”

Both Anthony and Arthur expressed their shock simultaneously.

“Why do you think that?!” Arthur shot up from his spot.

Eve, who was still as cool as a big block of ice, calmly replied: “What other options does he have? He’s already using your kind’s DNA to enhance his Demons.”

“But we both know that’s nowhere near enough to defeat you, the strongest Hero. The only option he has is to revive the Dragon race and use them as his minions.” With a tint of anger in his voice, Eve stated.

“Haa,” Starsuper let out an anxious sigh and sat down on his seat.

The whole reason Starsuper persecuted the Dragons was to avoid a situation like this. Dragons were the only thing that could challenge Starsuper’s might.

They were a strong race of monsters. Starsuper nearly died twice in the process of killing them all.

For years he was able to breathe easily, but now the threat of Dragons was hovering over them again.

“But still, can he even revive a creature that has been dead for so long?!” Anthony was the one who asked that.

Starsuper simply shook his head and said: “He doesn’t need to revive them. He can just create them.”

Eve nodded at those words before opening his mouth to speak.

“And this time we won’t be able to control them since they won’t be natural,” Eve said. “Starsuper, this time we won’t be able to protect you.”