VILLAIN'S RISING

-“Attention, please. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill. Please remain calm and proceed to the shelter located below your nearest malls and office buildings.” The female announcer stopped for a few seconds before continuing again.

“Avoid being out in the open at all costs. The city is under attack. I repeat the city is under attack. Remain in the shelters until the ‘All Clear’ message is announced.”

Every broadcasting media was used– be it televisions, digital ad boards on the buildings, sidewalk announcement speakers, and even the central mall speakers to alert the residents of Academy City.

At first, they thought it was a drill they do from time to time. However, when the female announcer clarified it was not a drill, panic struck among the residents.

The fact that they were broadcasting through every possible network medium does nothing but make the gravity of the situation much more apparent.

Soon after, they heard a loud explosion sound too. After that, panic simply turned into chaos.

“Haa! Haa!” Kiara was panting for her breath as she ran through the crowded streets of the Academy at her full speed.

The mushroom cloud nuclear explosion that occurred in the Academy was seen or heard by everyone.

People came out of their houses and filled the streets. Everyone was rushing to the nearest malls.

At times like this, usually, Heroes would be present there to calm down the citizens, but what made them more worried was the fact that not even a single Hero was in sight.

Where was every Hero? Did they abandon the city? No, that can’t be! They wouldn’t abandon the city that’s literally known as the Heart Of Heroes.

Thoughts like that shot through everyone’s mind as they made their way to the shelters.

They all believed in their Heroes. They all believed in Starsuper. Even if everyone in the world abandons them, Starsuper will always appear out of nowhere and protect them.

That’s how much faith they had in their Strongest Hero.

And why wouldn’t they have faith in him? Not only was he one of the oldest Heroes, but he was also the only one who could stand up to the definition of the word ‘Hero.’

With their trust to comfort them and calm down their panic, the citizens of Academy City sought shelters.

All they had to do was hold tight, and Starsuper would come and save them like he always does._.

So while everyone was running towards the mall and office buildings, a single silver-haired girl was making her way through the crowded street in the opposite direction.

She was going towards the Academy Gates. She planned to escape the city even if she had to storm through the gates, even if she had to reveal her true identity.

He wanted to spend more time with Anthony, but this was not the time to think about that. Right now, her life mattered more than some stupid crush.

Besides, she had this powerful gut feeling. It was telling her to run while she still could.

It was like having a deja vu of a traumatic experience you have no memories of. It was a weird feeling, but she listened to it.

She would escape the city, call her father, and tell him that the boy he trusted this much was the Progenitor!

If only the poor girl had any idea about the reality.

“Haa! Haa!” Coming to a stop amidst the crowded street, Kiara collected her breath.

‘It’s taking too long to run…’ she thought.

If she were to use her ability and summon a mythological serpent, then she could escape this city in a flash.

However, the explosion that will happen during the summoning will kill all the people present near her.

Kiara was a Supervillain, sure. But she never wanted to be one.

The only reason she even stepped on this path was to please her father and make him accept her.

Even though she had killed thousands, if not millions, she always, always avoided any unnecessary killing.

In fact, she, unlike Sam, had never killed aged people or children. Her ability was best suited for assassination anyway.

“I’m sorry…” with her head dropped, eyes closed, and fists clenched, Kiara muttered.

She had no other choice. She couldn’t die in a place like this, and death as pathetic as this.

She had to escape and live the life she had always dreamed of! Even if she had to kill, she would do it!

With that thought, Kiara activated her ability, and a cyan color energy filled her in its embrace.

“In this time of need, I call upon the Midgard serpent! Come forth, J?rmungandr!” She chanted out aloud, but the passersby didn’t mind her.

They had no time to stop and laugh at some girl who was clearly suffering from middle school grade syndrome.

Yeah, also, that chuunibyou chant that she uttered was in no way necessary to call upon her powers.

In fact, she doesn’t actually ‘summon’ the snakes from mythologies. She just recreates them in this world according to the description that she had read about them.

So the chant was absolutely unnecessary.

However, still, as soon as she finished, clouds darker than black painted the sky, and a bolt of cyan lightning fell down on her.

A thunderous lightning explosion occurred, and the body of a legless reptile could be seen being materialized with translucent cyan energy.

The thunderous lightning strike was big and wide enough that it caught at least a few dozens of civilians in it.

The situation only created more chaos. Babies started wailing in their mother’s arms, death screams of those who got caught up in the explosion filled up the streets, and whispers of people muttering their prayers were heard.

However, the culprit of this situation stood unwavering despite all the chaos around her with her eyes closed.

Enveloping her was the translucent cyan snake’s body that she was summoning.

However, before her summon could finish, an authoritative voice resounded throughout the area.

“Dismiss!”

The snake’s translucent body, which was still to materialize fully, diminished into cyan snow-like energy particles.

The sudden dismissal of her summoning forced Kiara to open her eyes and look for who it was that stopped her.

As she feared, she found a black-headed boy standing just a few steps away from her.

“Going somewhere, love?”

*

Starsuper slowly descended down to the ground. He was carrying Drake on his shoulder, so he was slightly more careful while landing.

He placed Drake safely on the ground far away from the explosion site before going in.

“Akhuu! Khuu!” As soon as he entered the site of the explosion, Starsuper heard the loud sound of someone coughing violently.

The area was filled with smog, and the odor of burnt flesh and chemicals was in the air.

It would’ve been hard for anyone even to breathe here right now. The oxygen in the surrounding area right now was exceptionally scarce after the explosion.

So it was no surprise that someone was having trouble here. That’s the reason Starsuper left Drake away from this epicenter of the explosion.

Starsuper had no problem navigating his way here, though, since he possessed toxin immunity.

Only one person who could’ve survived a death sentence of an explosion like that. So it must be Eve.

Starsuper neared the area where he heard the explosion coming from.

However, he saw something unexpected there that even left Starsuper wide-eyed.

He saw Eve kneeling down on his knees, gasping for air and collecting his energy after unleashing an explosion on the same level as a small hydrogen bomb.

He had expected this much. But the thing is, the coughing sound wasn’t coming from him.

In front of Eve on the ground was lying something that, at first glance, could be discarded as a burnt corpse.

However, it was moving, and it was coughing.

Upon closer inspection, Starsuper found that the burnt body, which was almost a skeleton now, looked like someone he had recently gotten familiar with.

Yes, it was Sam’s body. His clone’s body, to be more precise.

“This bastard even survived my Dragon’s Judgement…” in between gasping for air, Eve spoke with a tinge of irritation hidden behind his tone.

“Even his clones are this tough.” After recovering his energy within a few seconds, Eve stood up and commented.

“This one was clearly stronger than the other weaker ones,” Starsuper titled his neck and sighed in annoyance. He then activated his Heat Vision. “But just imagine how tough the real deal would be.”

Eve simply nodded while inhaling a long, deep breath and Starsuper readied to shoot his lasers, but before he could do so, the clone’s burnt body started speaking.

“Yo-You will lose!” Its voice was much more profound and uglier than usual. It almost sounded like how a zombie would sound.

Starsuper simply closed his eyes before replying. “We won’t lose. We will not let the peace of this world be disrupted!”

“You will never be a God, Samael Gracefell!” Eve joined in. “A God is loving, not a monster like you! We will not let you strip this world of its freedom!”

“Ehehahaha!” Eccentric could be the only fitting word to describe the way Sam was laughing in reply.

He waited for a few seconds before opening his mouth.

“You talk about love and peace, but your messages come with bullets.

You tell us about your prophecies, but sinners were your prophets.

Activists talk about freedom, but their freedom comes with choices.

Love of god gets spread through fear, acting as the catalyst.

You bury their voices while claiming to be the protector of the masses.

If I say otherwise, then I’ll be Villainized, oh the irony!

The justice I’ll be imparting mine, I’ll let my fire speak.

A perfect world is what I seek. I can feel your blood drying.

Your god is not above. Your freedom is what I’ll be deciding.

I can feel you looking at me, and I can feel your faith dying.

I can feel the death creeping, your world’s ending and the Villain’s Rising!”

“Hahahaha! Ahahaha!” Finishing his little poetic monologue, Sam started laughing.

With his brunt skull face and beast-like voice, it may as well have been a sight of hell.

Starsuper let out a deep breath before deciding to finish him off and end this nonsense.

He activated his Heat Vision, and a pair of lasers cut Sam’s clone in a horizontal half.

“Ha…ha…ha”

The laugh slowly turned into a whisper, and the whisper slowly died.

“We have to stop him!” That’s all Eve could say at that moment. “We can’t let him win!”