VILLAIN'S RISING

—6 Hours Ago—

“You mean he will target the museum next?!” Lightbringer stood up in his place while smashing the table with his hands.

“Yes, Eve has a reason to believe that he will be reviving the race of Dragons,” Starsuper confirmed.

“Wait, shouldn’t he go to Los Angeles, though?” Scarlett Vampire touched her chin and spoke. “According to legend, the only way for him to break his limiters is the branch of The Tree Of Life.”

“Yes, but he also knows going there alone with a bunch of Demons would spell doom for him.” Deadeye reasoned. “Strong as he is, it’s clear he’s still inexperienced using his powers, or the Academy incident would’ve been so much worse.”

“For once, I agree with Deadeye here.” Liberty joined in the conversation. “It’s clear that he doesn’t have full mastery over his powers. Or instead of turning the students at the Academy one by one, he would’ve turned them all together.”

“The news of Los Angeles tightening its security must’ve reached his ears.” A guy in a lab coat spoke up. “Surely, he wouldn’t take such a risk. He will first build an army.”

“An army of Dragons….” Liberty whispered with a tint of fear in her tone. “Professor is right. We must stop him before he could get his hand on the Dragon corpse.”

“Can’t we move it from there?” One of the guys wearing a tight blue body fit suit suggested. He had golden brown hair and deep ocean eyes.

His Hero name was Seaking and his power, as his name suggested, was to manipulate the creatures of the water.

“We can, but we will expose ourselves to an attack while doing so.” Deadeye instantly declined the suggestion. “In fact, I bet that’s what he wants us to do. To make a mistake that he can capitalize.”

In all honesty, Deadeye wasn’t wrong. The weight of the Dragon’s carcass would be somewhere around 500 tons or even more._.

The only one capable of lifting that kind of weight around here is, of course, Starsuper.

Liberty can carry that weight, too, but unfortunately, she can’t fly. So using her for transportation would be impossible.

And if Starsuper carried the Dragon, the rest of them would have to defend him.

So if the Progenitor attacks them at that moment, not only do they have to fight back but also defend at the same time. No way they can do that.

“Again, Deadeye is correct.” Liberty nodded. She had known him the longest. She knew what he was thinking was correct.

Even if this new Progenitor is inexperienced right now, he is still a monster. No way they could stand a chance against him with their hands tied.

“So we can only wait for him to attack?” Lightbringer uttered the question that was on everyone’s mind.

Their hands were still tied. They were still doing what he wanted them to do.

The whole room fell into silence. Only sounds of breathing resounded as the air in the atmosphere continued to grow heavy by the seconds.

Finally breaking the silence, Starsuper, who was sitting quietly at the top end of the table, spoke up. “He will use a distraction.”

“What?”

“What do you mean by distraction?”

“Do you mean he will not attack?”

The heavy atmosphere of the room turned into confusion. What could Starsuper possibly mean by his words?

“None of you understands him,” Starsuper said and shook his head. “The scenario that he will only attack one front is too good to be true.”

“Wh-What do you mean?” Lightbringer was the one to raise that question.

Starsuper sighed and began explaining. “He doesn’t give us one good and one bad choice. He gives us two bad choices to choose from.”

“He kidnapped my daughter right before we discovered his plans. He gave me a choice to either look for my daughter and let the city get destroyed or save the city in the risk of losing my daughter.” Starsuper continued. “Then he gave me a choice to either look for him and let the students turn into Demons or kill the students and let him escape.”

The whole room fell into silence once again. Those were indeed tough choices. But what does that have to do with the current matter?

“What I mean to say is, he just doesn’t attack us physically. He also breaks us mentally.” Starsuper cleared his throat and facepalmed himself. “The scenario that he will only attack the museum is too good to be true.”

“Wait, do you mean to say that-” before Scarlet Vampire could finish her sentence, Starsuper cut her off.

“Yes, he will attack us on both fronts. He will attack both the museum and the city of Los Angeles.” Finally clearing the air of mystery, Starsuper declared. “He’s trying to divide our force to defend both places.”

At that announcement, everyone fell into deep thoughts. Expressions of uneasiness, anxiety, fear, and panic were visible on their faces.

However, none of them lost their cool and remained calm.

With a thoughtful look on his face, Deadeye spoke. “But if he’s trying to divide our forces, then he’ll have to divide his forces too, right?”

Like a true tactician that he was, Deadeye analyzed the situation and continued. “Even if he does attack both fronts, his already little forces will be cut in half.”

“That’s a good point, but that’s because you’re expecting him to divide his forces.” Starsuper acknowledged but instantly pointed out a fatal flaw in Deadeye’s insight. “He can create clones and use shapeshift. He doesn’t need to actually divide his forces to convince us that he did that.”

“Haa,” with a sigh, Deadeye facepalmed and nodded. His point was perfect, but he underestimated the Progenitor. “So, what should we do?”

“Oh, that’s simple,” Starsuper responded with an ‘isn’t that obvious’ look. “We will gamble on our luck.”

*

“Are you sure this was a good idea?” Standing on top of a tall skyscraper’s roof, Lightbringer confronted Starsuper.

Starsuper didn’t reply instantly and looked down to view the city. The roads were empty, and the buildings were quiet.

The whole city had an eerie atmosphere as it resembled a ghost town. Not even a single person was in sight.

The chilly winds that were blowing over this empty city and the black clouds that covered the sky indicated that a storm was brewing.

It was literally and figuratively the calm before the storm.

“What do you mean?” Feeling Lightbringer’s gaze fixated on him, Starsuper eventually answered with a question of his own.

“You know what I mean.” Lightbringer sniggered before replying. “You know how trashy your luck is, right?”

“Hahaha!” That comment did nothing but make Starsuper burst out in laughter. “You are right about that one, buddy.”

Lightbringer only shook his head in response with a smile of his own on his face. “Haa, are you sure that betting the world’s future like this was the right thing to do?”

With a brief pause, Starsuper took a deep breath and answered. “Do you believe in fate?”

“I do not.” Lightbringer’s reply was instant, showing just how much disbelief he had over the term fate. “Is this about Heya the Demon General?”

“I didn’t use to believe in it either,” Starsuper revealed, ignoring Lightbringer’s question before continuing to talk further. “But somethings happened in the past that made me believe in such a stupid thing as fate.”

“What happened?” Lightbringer questioned.

“Someone made me see the death of my two brothers. Yes, before you ask, it was Heya.” Starsuper said and clenched the railing of the roof– crushing it with his bare hands.

“So it is about her. Starsuper–” before Lightbringer could continue, Starsuper cut him off.

“I know, I know you don’t believe in future telling abilities. No one does.” Starsuper waved his hands. “However, what if it’s true? She has already prophesied the end of this world… What if we can’t stop him this time?”

“We will!” Yelling, Lightbringer grabbed Starsuper by the shoulder. “Do not break! That’s what he wants. We need you, Starsuper! We need our symbol of strength!”

“Haa,” heaving a deep sigh, Starsuper cleared his thoughts. Lightbringer was right. This was indeed not the correct time to think about stuff like this. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“No problem, just buy me a bottle of Go?t de Diamants after we get back home,” Lightbringer said with a cheeky smile.

“You still like that stuff?” With a look of disgust, Starsuper commented. “Your taste in alcohol is worse than your taste in ladies.”

“Ayo! What do you mean?! My fifth wife was the best beauty in the world!” Lightbringer refuted, which made Starsuper giggle.

“Yeah, and she fucked your brother! Great taste! Hahaha!”

“Oye! Don’t bring up that incident! Besides–”

Before the two old friends could continue chit-chatting, Starsuper raised his hand to stop Lightbringer from talking.

Lightbringer instantly activated his ability and readied himself for battle. Starsuper must’ve sensed something.

Danger Detection is one of Starsuper’s most trusted abilities that lets him know when he’s about to be in danger.

This ability also lets him know the levels of danger he is going to be in. And right now, the level of danger he was feeling was a severe one.

Only a few people in this world can make him feel this level of threat. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out who would attack them right now.

“He’s here.”