VILLAIN'S RISING

“Robin! Robin, please wake up!” In a worried voice, Drake yelled.

He was kneeling on the ground, and in his embrace was his girlfriend, Robin. She had her eyes closed as if she was in a deep slumber.

No, she wasn’t dead. Her breathing and heart rate were normal. However, for some reason, she had lost consciousness.

“Robin! Please wake up! Please!” Drake kept on calling out her name.

Around him was a scene of mayhem. People were lying all around him. Some were convulsing in pain while others were rolling around.

All of them were screaming in torment and agony. The pain that they were feeling must’ve been so unbearable for them to be causing them to scream like that.

But even amidst a clusterfuck of chaos, Drake didn’t abandon his love when she fell unconscious to the ground.

However, why wasn’t she screaming and crying like the rest of the students? Why wasn’t she turning?

Right when Drake was in those thoughts, he heard a voice from his side.

“She won’t be turning, don’t worry.”

Widening his eyes to the familiar voice, Drake jerked his head to the side and saw a black-headed boy looking back at him.

He then looked ahead and saw Sam and Starsuper exchanging blows. It was clear that this boy in front of Drake was a clone too.

“You! You did this to her!” Drake turned to Sam and yelled through his teeth, but he didn’t move from his position. “You traitor!”

“I’m giving you a chance. Listen to me.” Calmly raising his hands to show that he meant no hostility, Sam demanded for Drake to listen to him.

“Fuck you!” However, Drake was quick to deny with a cuss. “We trusted you! You were our friend!”_.

“Oh, come on, Drake!” Sam simply rolled his eyes at that reaction. “I’m giving you a chance to live! I’m giving you a chance to fix this broken world!”

Drake didn’t respond with anything. He simply and carefully placed Robin’s head on the ground.

Sam arched his eyebrows as Drake stood up and came face to face with him. He was only an inch away from Sam, but no signs of fear could be seen on his face.

His eyes were filled with fury, and he was clenching his fists. His whole aura was screaming, ‘I’m not scared of you’ as he looked Sam dead in the eyes.

“Haaa,” a sigh escaped Sam’s mouth in response to Drake’s stupid choice. “Are you really trying to fight your way with the Progenitor itself?”

“Yes,” Drake replied with a single word while the expressions on his face remained unchanged.

In all honesty, Sam knew a righteous and noble boy like Drake would never see the world the way Sam does.

But Sam still gave him a choice. After all, they were the only people who Sam didn’t think of as mere subjects to rule over.

But that doesn’t mean he was not ready to kill them.

“Fine then,” Sam closed his eyes. His time with both of them flashed before his eyes.

It was not in his best interest to eliminate Drake, but he had to do it now before he could create any problems in the future.

In an instant, Sam opened his eyes and punched Drake with an inhumane speed.

However, the speed wasn’t enough to land a hit on Drake. The red-haired boy lowered his stance and dodged the incoming punch.

From that low position, he balled his fist and activated his ability. Fire engulfed his fist before Drake threw a straight at Sam.

“Anghhhhh!”

Right when Drake’s fire-enveloped fist could touch Sam, he heard a loud moan of pain.

The voice was familiar to Drake’s ears, and it came from behind him. Without caring for Sam, Drake instantly moved his eyes to the ground behind him.

He saw that Robin, although still unconscious, was clutching her stomach.

“Arghhhhaaaaaa!”

The moan of pain turned into a scream of agony. A scream very similar to what all the students around him were voicing.

“Robin! Robin, no no no no no!” Although he had only read about this process in the books and heard some stories, it was clear to him that Robin was turning into a Demon.

Before he could kneel down to hold her body in his embrace, Drake felt an arm on his shoulder.

He couldn’t even resist or react before Sam whispered in his ears, “I can still stop it.”

*

“You don’t understand! None of you understand! Micheal, please! Listen to me, please!” A girl forcefully behind, held in place by a few heroes in white uniforms screamed.

She wasn’t struggling to break free. Apparently, it looked like she was just trying to warn them about something.

The Sentries were putting on a [Dog Collar] around her neck. Dog Collar was a device used to suppress ability users of lower than [S] grades.

“Irina, why?” Micheal, who was present at the scene and was standing a few steps away from the girl, spoke.

“Why did you betray our trust? Why did you betray trust?” Painfully holding back his tears, Micheal said.

“Had you come to us, we could’ve given you a chance! But you betrayed us!” He continued.

The girl just kept shaking her head. She wanted to get her point across, but she wasn’t being given any chances to do so.

“Listen to me!” Finally breaking her patience, Irina burst out. “Your brother, he’s dangerous!”

…Her words echoed in Micheal’s ears.

For a second, he wanted to believe in her words because of how genuinely true they sounded, but the next second he shook his head.

“Don’t get my brother into this!” Micheal yelled. He thought that because Irina was trying to manipulate Micheal’s feelings for his brother.

However, unknown to him, Irina wasn’t doing anything like that.

From a young age, Irina had these urges to kill. She never enjoyed it, but it gave her temporary bliss.

It’s like how ordinary people have urges to copulate and procreate. Although in her case, she was born to have urges to take life, not create it.

When her parents found a bunch of birds, with their necks all twisted, lying lifeless in the garage, they confronted Irina about it.

Sobbing and wailing about what she had done, Irina told her parents the truth.

Her parents reacted as all the other normal parents would’ve in their shoes. They stood there in silence with a mix of worry, concern… and disgust.

Irina could never forget the emotion she saw in their eyes that day. She felt as if her parents were regretting giving birth to her.

After that, they took her to many psychiatrists and doctors. However, Irina’s urges showed no signs of stopping.

So when therapy failed, they had no choice but to resort to religion.

They took her to churches, mosques, and temples in search of a ‘cure’ for her.

In the end, even religion failed them. Just when they were about to lose all hope and surrender her to the asylum, a man came in and offered their kid.

Her parents, without even bothering to check this man’s background, immediately agreed to let him take their daughter to his church daily.

That man was, of course, Apocalypse. Back then, he went by the title of Head Priest.

Not only did he teach Irina how to control her urges, but he also taught her how to use them to strengthen her— make her deadlier.

For Irina, that man was like a ray of hope. But the man had ulterior motives.

As you might’ve guessed already, he wanted to use Irina. And he indeed ended up using her for years.

That was until she met a boy. He was a boy from her neighborhood. And as clichè as this origin story sounds, being with that boy relieved her.

It felt like she didn’t have to fear her urges taking over her reasoning. When she was with that boy, she felt like she could let go!

Not only were her urges wholly suppressed, but she also felt like a new person when she was around him. She liked herself when she was around him.

So she left the church, cut all contacts with the man named Apocalypse, and convinced her parents to let her join the Hero Academy with Michael.

But not even six months into the Academy, she received a message from that man asking for her to return. He threatened her to spy for him or else he would release the information about her past.

Obviously not wanting that to happen, Irina obliged.

She just had to spy for him, and the man even promised her not to harm her ‘boyfriend.’

It was supposed to be an easy job… until he came and killed Apocalypse.

Irina couldn’t forget the look on the face of the black-haired boy. It was also her first time seeing Apocalypse getting defeated like this.

A few days later, Sam paid her a visit. He wanted for her to join him. He told her that he was the only person who would accept her for who she was in this world.

Irina, who had already been fed with this lie, saw through the bullshit and instantly declined him.

She didn’t care about dying but she was done being someone who she couldn’t even look in the mirror.

She knew Sam’s identity, and she knew how dangerous he was. That’s why she tried to warn Micheal but… Micheal had the same look as her parents when she told them about herself.

A look of worry, concern, and disgust.

“Micheal, please don’t look at me like that! Believe me! Your brother is not normal! He’s dangerous!” With tears in her eyes, Irina kept on begging, but Micheal just evaded any eye contact with her.

Before she could speak any further, a beeping noise sounded coming from one of the Sentries who was making her wear the Collar.

-Beep

The Sentry tapped his ear before speaking, “Yes?”

However, the answer that came from the other side of his comm device made him swallow a mouthful of saliva in shock.

Seeing his facial muscles tensing up in fear, the other Sentry spoke, “What? What is it?”

“The Progenitor… The Progenitor is here!”