VILLAIN'S RISING

—6 Hours Earlier—

“Gamble on luck?! Are you seriously suggesting for us to risk people’s lives on luck?!” Deadeye was the first one to raise his voice.

Soon, one after another, everyone present in the room started pointing out how stupid the plan was.

How could they risk all they have on luck?! They might as well just surrender?! After all, this war was about the future of their world!

Starsuper silently sat there, giving everyone a chance to voice their opinions.

After a few minutes, he casually suggested, “So, does anyone else have a better plan?”

…The whole room grew silent at those words. To be perfectly honest, none of them, no matter how hard they tried to think, could suggest anything better.

“We don’t, but we still can’t gamble on our world’s future!” Deadeye said. “We should at least prepare a strategy!”

“There is a strategy,” Starsuper responded, silencing everyone’s thoughts. “Only let me, Eve, and Lightbringer go Los Angeles.”

Once more, silence enveloped the whole room.

Why does he want to go alone? Isn’t this the time they all should be working together?!

Thoughts like that ran through everyone’s minds, but no one dared to utter a single word in response.

Reading the room, Starsuper proceeded to explain his strategy. “Our plan is to stall for time. We will wait for the Martians to come to Earth before facing him in an all-out war.

“During the time they will take to arrive here, you guys will only have one job. Your job will be to safeguard the museum. Take all the Heroes and all the army force you need, but guard the museum.”_.

“And you three will guard the Relic of Los Angeles?” Liberty inquired.

“Yes. Lightbringer is fast, his ability won’t work on me, and Eve is just a menace. I’m sure we three can handle the Progenitor for now.” Starsuper responded in reply, to which Lightbringer simply nodded.

He was right. He deliberately chose the only three people that could give the Progenitor a run for his money.

Lightbringer is as fast as the speed of light since he could literally turn into a ray of light.

Starsuper is immune to the Progenitor’s biology manipulation.

Eve, although possessing none of the aforementioned qualities, is just a pure powerhouse on a battlefield.

Even if Sam decides to bring some of the Demons, Eve could efficiently deal with them while Starsuper and Lightbringer would face him in a 2v1 battle.

And if Sam decides to go for the museum first and avoids Los Angeles, then he would have to face the might of all the top Heroes.

So without splitting the numbers in half, Starsuper easily divided the forces equally.

This was a plan that could only work now when Sam was weaker and not in possession of too many Demons.

A foolproof plan that had no chance of failing.

“We are not gambling on this world’s future. We are gambling on his mentality. There’s a high chance that he will hit Los Angeles and Museum together.” Starsuper explained.

“So, where do you think he himself will be?” Professor shot that question before gulping a mouthful of saliva.

“If I had known that, then I would’ve focused our forces there!” Starsuper frowned at the stupid question.

For a person with the title of the ‘Genius man alive,’ Professor was quite dumb in battle strategies.

Shaking his head, Starsuper continued. “I don’t know where he himself will be, but wherever he chooses to go, he will lose!”

*

-BOOM!

A loud sonic boom resounded throughout the vicinity, making the ground tremble.

A giant cyan-colored translucent serpent descended down from the sky while Starsuper stood tall, facing the incoming doom.

The serpent gaped open its maw, but before it could get any closer, Starsuper punched through the air again and created another sonic boom.

-BOOM!

The serpent body blasted into shreds when faced with the pressure of the sonic boom and dispersed into cyan energy particles.

“Not so strong without your summons, are you?” Starsuper gazed at the silver-haired girl standing in front of him.

She was panting— clearly out of breath, and her attacks were growing ineffective against her opponent.

It was to the point where her illusions were rendered ineffective too! Just how quickly was this guy adapting to her ability?!

“Haa,” a sigh escaped Kiara’s lips as she started thinking of a way to escape this predicament.

The task Sam gave to them was completed. Now she just had to retreat with Lucas.

“Are you thinking about running away?” Starsuper uttered as if reading her mind. “I wonder, was this a distraction then?”

Medusa remained silent. She clenched her fist and readied her ability once again. It was time to run.

“That means he chose the museum to attack first?” Starsuper pondered out loud. “I see. Well, right now, he doesn’t stand a chance against all of the top Heroes combined.”

Starsuper was right. At most, Sam’s radius of influence over biology was 100 meters.

In other words, he had absolute control over all biology within the 100-meter radius. That means anyone within a 100-meter radius could easily be killed by Sam.

However, there were two slight problems with that scenario.

Even with his powers suppressed, Sam was undefeatable in 1v1 combat as long as his target was within the range of his influence.

Yes, the two slight problems were the number of opponents and his range of influence.

At best, with his current powers right now, Sam could face around 100 opponents or so. The emphasis here is ‘at best.’

The second problem was range. Someone away from his range of influence and coupled with a long-range ability could prove to be a challenge for him.

A sniper.

“Hahaha!” In the next moment, for some reason, Kiara, or rather Medusa, started hysterically laughing. A tint of anger and sadness was evident in her laugh.

“You don’t know him!” She said, “You don’t know the things he is capable of! You’re basing your whole plan on the fact that he will play fair! Well, guess what? He won’t!”

Her words made Starsuper frown. He noticed there was something different about her. But he didn’t have the time to use his divine sight and appraise her.

So he went for the next best thing. He planned to capture her.

Starsuper blurred out of sight and vanished.

Kiara, who had already expected this, activated her ability. “I’ll show you why they call me Medusa!”

As if waiting for that cue, Starsuper instantly appeared right in front of her and threw a straight in her face.

Medusa ducked and dodged the punch aimed at her with a superhuman display of speed.

Instantly, her skin started covered in what looked like reptile scales. Her hair glowed cyan and clustered together to form a huge snake on her head. Her cheeks sunk in, and her eyes turned gleaming red.

She was resembling a demon right now. Not the Demon she was turned into by Sam but an actual mythical demon.

Starsuper didn’t pay any mind to it and thrust his knee forward to hit Medusa, who was already in a low position.

Medusa crossed her arms and blocked the blow, but the force was enough to send her flying a few meters back.

Skidding on the ground a few times before coming to a halt, Medusa stood herself up and faced ahead to look for Starsuper, but the latter had already disappeared again.

This time, before Starsuper even appeared in sight, the cyan snake on Medusa’s head reacted and jolted to his right.

-Bam!

The snake collided with a punch which sent shockwaves of force throughout the area.

Starsuper, genuinely impressed with the defense, threw another punch, but the snake parried again and defended Medusa.

-Bam!

“This is your infamous Gorgon,” Starsuper commented. Even in extreme close range, he wasn’t afraid of anything.

In fact, Starsuper would have finished the battle whenever he wanted. He did not do that to check the level of strength these Demons created by the new Progenitor possessed.

“Turn to stone!” Medusa declared and hopped a few steps back. The snake on her head straightened and opened its mouth.

Particles of cyan energy clustered in front of its opened mouth, which was aimed at the Starsuper.

“And this must be your Petrification beam,” Starsuper nodded in acknowledgment.

Medusa was infamous for his finishing move, Petrification Beam. According to the info charts, it could turn anything or anyone it hits to stone.

That beam was one of the main reasons she was assigned the Calamity Rank and the name Medusa.

Since no matter how strong or how many her opponents may be, as long as her beam hits the target, she will always win.

However, Starsuper was done analyzing. He had no thoughts of entertaining this fight anymore.

“Die,” Medusa whispered, and the clustered ball of cyan energy particles shot at the man in front of him in a straight, wide beam.

“Haa,” Starsuper only sighed while looking at the incoming beam. Even if he were hit by it, he wouldn’t be changing into a stone statue, most probably.

But he didn’t take any chances and activated his most trusted ability. With his golden glowing eyes, he muttered, “Divine Sight.”