Villain Retirement

More than 600 years ago, in the Domain of the Gods, Joao was busy blowing all of his treasure in creature fights in the Summoner's City. He had nothing better to do as he had been trapped in the upper plane for hundreds of thousands of years; like most gods, he was just wasting his immortality away until something entertaining actually happened — and perhaps his wish was granted to the point that it was too much.

A black-clad god visited the city and started laying waste to everyone, demanding that Randall resurrect the little mortal he was holding. Of course, Joao was the first to croak as the black-clad god seemed to have targeted him first because of his age; perhaps the most awkward thing about that was that considering every god in Summoner's City, he was probably one of the youngest ones.

He just looked that old because he reached godhood late in life; although unspoken, older-looking gods actually tend to be weaker than the younger-looking ones because of that. It meant they had less potential than those who became god younger than them.

And so, he just pretended to be dead; hid away in the mountain of corpses while watching everything unfold. And then, a white-haired god suddenly appeared and just erased the black-clad god out of existence before asking Randall to revive someone…

…only to torture the mortal he asked to revive over and over again.

Joao was there, he was there when Death suddenly appeared in the plane — he was there when the very same white-haired god who was not holding his finger fought toe to toe with Death, the literal embodiment of Life's end.

"I apologize, Joao… But I do not think I will let you leave after all."

And now, he was not being allowed to leave at all.

"What… does that mean?" Joao took in a small gulp before looking toward Karina; his sunken eyes, almost pleading. Karina was at a loss as to what to do — if a fight between Riley and Joao were to break out, the entire New World and all of its innocent inhabitants would disappear in less than a blink of an eye.

At the same time, however, if Riley let Joao go, there was a chance that he would inform the other gods living there that she and her mother had broken the agreement. And before she could even voice out her concern about the situation, Riley stood up from the sofa while still holding Joao's wrinkled finger.

"You made a mess of my house, Joao," Riley whispered as he looked at the pool of blood oozing out from Lucy's gaping wound, as well as the dessert mixing into it,

"And you broke the Margrea Oath in front of several people — as the President of the Hero Academy and Association, I am afraid my hand is forced to deal with you as I see fit."

"Dad…" Karina raised both her palms in the air as she stood in front of her father, "...It's fine, Lucy's… completely unharmed. Don't do anything that would jeopardize the hundreds of years of peace. I might not agree with what the New World means, but it has kept people safe."

"L…listen to your daughter, White Father," Joao whispered out as he looked at Riley, "You—"

And before Joao could even finish his words, he suddenly found himself in the vacuum of space; the New World, now just a colorful bright marble a million kilometers away. He did not even see or feel what just happened, he was just there all of a sudden… with Riley still holding his finger.

Teleportation? No, Joao knows what that feels like. It wasn't teleportation… but stopping time. Joao quickly looked around to look for escape, but unfortunately for him, the moon where he lived was on the other side of the planet.

'Do you know why you are still alive, Joao?' Riley floated beside Joao as he started speaking in his mind using Xra's telepathy, which is able to bypass even Riley's immunity to all mental attacks.

'Because… you are allowing me to?' Joao dropped all pretense of superiority and mystery; his eyes, not even daring to glance at Riley's way even though his finger was still trapped by him.

"No, because you have not met me until today," Riley let out a small but very deep sigh, "Y—"

"Do you really think I would just die without fighting back!?"

And without even letting Riley finish his words, Joao suddenly cut off his own hand before kicking Riley to push himself away. He then shook his slice hand, regenerating an entire hand almost instantly before pointing both his palms toward Riley and letting out a massive flash that drowned half of New World with light for less than a millisecond.

But that is the only thing the New World would receive, a flash of light — the main target of the attack was Riley… who was completely unscathed aside from the smoke fuming from his body, which quickly dissipated in the darkness of space.

As for Joao, he was already flying at a speed several times faster than light to get back to the Moon, making sure he did not directly choose a path toward it to confuse Riley as to where he was going. But even after zig-zagging hundreds and thousands of kilometers, he suddenly found his face being covered by Riley's palm.

"Do you find it unfair, Joao? That there are people stronger than you, even after you are supposed to have reached godhood?"

And with those words, Joao's view of the expanse of space was all of a sudden replaced by a white space; it wasn't a domain, not at all, but just a place… a hall, to be exact,

"Please do not do anything, we are currently underground in the New World — if you destroy this place, the other gods will know and they will not like it; knowing that one of them has turned to violence against their inhabitants."

"Then so be it, I will not die without fighting!" Joao was about to raise his hand, but before he could do so, Riley appeared in front of him and once again held his finger.

"I will not kill you, Joao," Riley let out a small but very deep sigh as he started dragging Joao across the white hall, "I have not killed anyone for the past 15 years, I do not plan to break that streak yet — I said the same thing to your colleague when he happened to discover my existence."

"You—Colleague? What do you—"

Riley clapped his hands and interrupted Joao's words. And as soon as he did so, the white hall instantly changed; revealing more than a thousand glass cages, all filled with a singular captive. Joao did not care about any of them, however, as he only focused on the captive that was right in front of him.

"You…" Joao raised his free but trembling finger to point at the captive in front of him, "...Aren't you Banshi…?"

"You… know who I am?" The captive, Banshi, squinted his one single eye as he looked at Joao from head to toe; his hands which only had two fingers and a single thumb, placed on the glass as he seemed to want to be free from his enclosure,

"You're a god," Banshi then whispered.

"You have been missing for a few years, everyone thought you'd left to dive into the empty universes, "You… Were you here the entire time?"

"And now you are here too, my friend," Banshi just closed his eye as he stepped back; sitting on the ground with his reverse jointed leg while just shaking his head, "I am afraid you have been captured by the Empyrean Warden — my fate awaits you."

"Let's escape!" Joao placed his palm on the cage, "We can escape if we work together, I'm still outside, I can help you."

"Outside?" Banshi shook his head, "Seek yourself again and see if you are outside, my friend."

"What are you—" And before Joao could even finish his words, he suddenly realized that he wasn't outside at all, no — he was inside a glass cage.

"My advice to you, my friend," Banshi then very slowly turned around, "Do not break the glass, or the Empyrean Warden will break you."

Joao could not even let out another word as he noticed the scars littered on Banshi's back; they wanted to heal, but all his flesh could do was wriggle as something invisible seemed to be eating him from the inside out.

"Pain, my friend…" Banshi's voice turned meek as he completely looked away from Joao, "...My fate is eternal pain, and my dream is death…

…and soon it will also be yours."

Joao started to scan the hall, only to see Riley just casually walking around and seemingly admiring his work. He then watched as Riley stopped in one of the cages, opening it and freeing the tigerman inside it before glancing back to Joao,

"You do not have to worry, Joao — pain is not your fate," Riley smiled, "Your fate is similar to this one. Arguar the Warclaw, it is time for you to wreak havoc. Seek out Ambrucx the Lightclaw...

...and kill her children again. That would be funny...

...no?"