VILLAIN'S RISING

“Or he could just simply throw the building in the air.”

Soon as those words were said, the whole building that was floating in the air shot at them– threatening to crush them all like bugs.

Everyone, even Anthony, panicked seeing that except Eve and Lightbringer.

Right at that moment, Starsuper stepped forward and pulled back his arm. Before the building could even close in on them, Starsuper threw his punch in the air.

-KABOOM!

The speed and force of his punch broke the sound barrier with ease– creating a massive shock wave that hit the 3-story museum building and ripped it asunder as if it was made of paper.

The remains of the building, as fine as snowflakes, fell down from the sky and rained down on them– showcasing Starsuper’s strength.

“Dayum, all it took for you to destroy a three-story building was a punch that didn’t even connect to it.” A voice commented in a genuinely impressed tone.

Everyone present there looked at the source of the voice and found it to be Sam– standing there naked…

“You!” Gritting his teeth, Drake called out to his former friend. “You killed her!”

“Well, technically, I’m just a clone, so I did not kill her,” Sam, or rather his clone, raised his hands in defense. “But since we share the same conscience as the original, I think you could blame me.”

“So it was true,” Michael, who was standing right beside Drake, spoke in a dejected tone. “Even after looking at the news, I believed it to be some kind of a mishap… but it was true.”

Sam looked at Micheal, and for a second, a saddened look clouded his face, but an indifferent look soon replaced it.

“You wouldn’t understand, Micheal,” Sam spoke. “You had everything you asked for since the day you opened your eyes. You would never understand how broken this world is.”

Micheal looked at Sam with a painful look in his eyes– his eyes were barely holding back tears as he was on the verge of crying. He clutched his heart and opened his mouth.

“I did not have everything! I never had my big brother!” At those words from Michael, Sam couldn’t help but take a deep breath. “Do you know how sad mom was when she found out about you?!”

“But there’s still time for you, brother! Don’t do this, don’t go ahead with your plans! Stop it, and let’s go home!” Micheal yearned from the bottom of his heart. “Surrender, brother, please!”

Sam simply shook his head at those words, “You don’t understand, Micheal. Maybe I’m too far gone, maybe I’m crossing the line, but I’ve run from my destiny for far too long.

“At first, I only wanted to conquer this world and kill the Willburns simply because they were a threat to my authority, simply because the girl I liked had a crush on a Willburn.

“But now I see there are much bigger problems in the world than myself. And if I have a chance to solve those problems, then I will take it!” Sam voiced his determination and eyed the heroes present there.

“And besides, if your mom hadn’t left me when I was a child, this wouldn’t have happened– no, who am I kidding. I would still have turned out to be the hypocritical, twisted psycho that I am today, hahaha!” Cynically laughing at his own statement, Sam smirked. “Even in a perfect world, I would still have been a monster.”

“I see,” Michael bitterly gritted his teeth at his brother’s words while clenching his hands.

“So now that the brothers’ union is completed, let’s go back to killing the bad guy, yeah?” Starsuper said with a smile on his face.

The smile on his face then turned serious, and he yelled, “Open fire!”

At that command, the several elite military personnel present there with their guns pointed at Sam opened fire.

Those weren’t normal guns, of course. Those were plasma guns—capable of blasting a hole even through a diamond wall.

Without wasting any more time, Starsuper flew up in the air to search for the original Sam from the sky. Anthony followed behind him instantly.

Drake was almost tempted to follow them, but he felt his father’s hand on his shoulder—gesturing him not to follow them and deal with the clone instead.

“Father, I will kill him!” Drake uttered with resentment.

“You are no match for him right now,” said Eve without sugarcoating his words. “So hurt him by making him lose this war instead.”

Drake bared his teeth at that statement. Even though he knew how powerless he was against the Progenitor, that did nothing to help the pain he was feeling from losing his love.

He looked in the direction where Sam’s clone was standing. Dust covered that area while plasma bullets still didn’t stop shooting at him.

From the cover of dust, a shadow shot out at them with incredible speed.

Lightbringer was the first to react. He used his ability, transformed into a light ray, and caught the shadow with his bare hands—slamming him down on the ground.

He instantly pinned Sam’s clone by mounting on top of him and pinning him down. He raised his hands and activated his ability again and a sword made solely of light manifested in his hands.

“Jee, old man, I’m naked,” Sam commented with a smirk on his face. “Do you like pinning down kids half the age of your daughter?”

With no intention of entertaining him, Lightbringer brought his hand down and struck Sam in the chest with his light sword.

Sam, with no pain or fear on his face, grabbed Lightbringer’s hands and pulled him closer before landing a fist on his face.

Lightbringer jerked back, and Sam used that chance to follow up with an attack of his own. He morphed his right hand into a blade and thrust it forward—intending to pierce Lightbringer’s throat.

His arm blade met nothing but air, and Lightbringer evaded the attack by transforming into light and teleporting a few meters away from Sam.

Sam quickly got up to his feet, but the barrage of plasma bullets assaulted him again.

This time though, Sam created an invisible barrier with his [Neither Manipulation] and prevented any damage from the bullets.

Not giving him the time to breathe, a humongous fireball—no, a fire meteor shot at Sam from his front.

Sam gritted his teeth and braced for impact. He had no choice but to take the blow head-on.

-BOOOM!

An explosion occurred as soon as the fireball hit Sam and flames arose—devouring everything within their touch and turning it into black ash.

When the dust settled, Sam was seen with a clear annoyed look on his face. Half of his body was burnt, but it was quickly regenerating.

“You’re annoying, Eve,” Sam said and activated his [Biology Manipulation]. He had to eliminate Eve first, no matter what.

But before his ability could take effect, Lightbringer shot at Sam with the speed of light and delivered a kick directly at his face.

Sam lost his balance and fell a few steps back before recovering his footing, but suddenly a red light flashed in his peripheral vision.

He turned his head to his right and saw Scarlet Vampire standing there with her hands raised. On top of her was floating a majestic crimson-colored energy orb.

“Thanks to all the people you killed here, I was able to harvest enough souls for this attack,” she spoke, looking at Sam with a victorious gaze.

Sam clicked his tongue and instantly rushed at her. But before he could even take a step, a golden light pierced his leg and brought him to his knees.

The light turned into a man– Lightbringer before he looked back at Sam.

“If only I had White Walker’s ability right now,” Sam sighed.

The giant orb that Scarlet Vampire was holding on top of her head broke out in a crimson energy beam— aimed at Sam.

-Skwiii!

The crimson beam hit an invisible wall in front of Sam, but it was clear that Sam was having trouble keeping his barrier up.

“Tsk, all I need is a second of focus!” Sam gritted his teeth.

Sam’s ability was, by far, the most broken ability out there in a 1v1. But when faced up against a group of super-powered individuals, he was having trouble keeping up.

His ability wasn’t instant. Although less than any other abilities out there, it still had an activation time.

Right then, Sam felt sweat dripping down his back. Was he scared?! No, the temperature behind him was rising!

I slightly jerked his head to the right to peek at what was going on behind him and saw Drake manifesting a massive fire dragon.

“Fuck me,” Sam cursed. “Fine then, no holding back!”

“Die, you traitor!” Drake yelled. A majestic flaming dragon flew over his head—letting out a roar of defiance.

“Dragon’s Wrath!” Drake yelled, and the dragon made purely of fire shot toward Sam with its wide-open maw.

Closing in on Sam, the dragon closed its gaping jaw and enveloped Sam inside its mouth.

-KABOOM!

With Sam at its epicenter, a colossal explosion broke out as soon as the fire dragon clothed its maw.

The military personnel had to deploy their shields, while a sentry had to summon a huge barrier to protect everyone from the death sentence of an explosion.

However, even after all that, Eve still had a concerned expression plastered on his face.

Perhaps he had sensed that the storm had yet to pass for them.