Villain Retirement

"But… you've only been gone for 2 hours."

"...And he arrived an hour ago."

"..."

The almost casual and festive mood that was injected into the council by Hannah and the others completely dissipated, replaced by confused breaths and querying eyes as all of them gathered around Barney.

"King…" Chihiro was the first to react; her eyes, not knowing where to look as she took a step back, "...He's starting to move across the universes."

"That's… the variant that Riley and I met," Aerith quickly glanced at Bard as she remembered his warning.

"The variant we met after you kissed me, Aerith."

"T…that's a detail no one else needs to know!"

All the Hannah variants momentarily glared at Aerith, but they did not really say anything as they focused back on Barney.

"If he arrived an hour ago, are you telling me an hour was all it took to conquer Earth?"

"Earth…?" Barney slightly gritted his teeth as Diana stopped the bleeding of his dismembered arm; his wince, unknown whether it was because of the pain, or Bard's question,

"All it took was for me to say no to him," Barney forced out a chuckle as he clutched his arm, "And he used Elder Tedi to mow down Earth. He didn't even hear the rest of what I had to say. So no, Bard; an hour was not what it took to destroy Earth—he used that time to take out the rest of the universe."

"W—"

"Do you know how he arrived, Bard? Do you know how?" Barney's entire body started to tremble; his once colorful armor, now only red with blood,

"He arrived with 86's head, right in the middle of Old York. I… I wasn't there—I was researching about the primordials since I was still trying to find a way…" Barney suddenly turned quiet, "...But my husband. Bulwark, Bulwark was there. Bulwark doesn't know about the multiverse, I didn't tell him but he immediately caught up that King wasn't me, but… he thought, he thought I was 86 so he rushed toward King in rage and…"

"That's enough, Barney."

"No. No!" Barney raised his finger and pointed it at Bard, "You need to hear this, all of you need to hear this."

"..."

"Bulwark was slaughtered… using his own abilities," Barney then let out a gasping peal of laughter as he looked for the Bulwark of Riley's universe. But alas, he already gone home to tend to the students of Mega Academy, deciding whether or not to divulge everything he had learned,

"I was so, so angry. A lot more died when they tried fighting him and all I could do was let them… and when the time came when King asked me if I would surrender, I said no; completely forgetting what sort of person—no, monster he is. Elder Tedi just suddenly appeared out of nowhere with her body already inside the planet… all she needed was to move and everything was gone. He didn't even check if I was alive—no, he didn't even care as he warped away. I tried to stop him, I really did…

…he destroyed the themarians next. Queen Tifa was able to wound him, but then another Tedi appeared, and you can imagine what happened next. When I knew he couldn't be stopped, I just ran back here… before what happened to 86 happened to me."

"..."

"I am sure of it," Barney's voice lowered even further, "He… tortured 86 so he could give coordinates to find other universes. It's… We need to gather everyone again. King…

…he needs to be stopped."

And with those words, Barney closed his eyes as his body seemed to just go limp. If it wasn't for Diana catching him, he would have just gone straight to the floor.

"Is… he dead?" Hannah gulped.

"No, he just fainted from exhaustion," Diana shook her head as she carried Barney to the closest sofa, "The Guardian Force practically gives him unlimited stamina. But even with that, he shouldn't even be alive. Most of his internal organs are shifted in the wrong way… he's only alive through sheer will."

"That man… I should have ended him when I had the chance," Aerith stared at the unconscious Barney before looking at Bard, "Take me to Barney's universe, I'll kill him myself. It's… the least I could do — he found out about the multiverse because of me and Riley."

"You don't understand, Aerith," Bard shook his head, "King is completely different from me and the other Bernards. We have no data on how powerful he truly is. And based on what Barney told us, he is also capable of copying other supers' abilities."

"Then all the more reason I should be the one to handle this," Aerith glanced at Riley, "I have a lot of experience in fighting psychopaths who have a lot of abilities."

"You can't win against him alone," Bard raised his voice, "He is someone even Machina is wary of. He is the most dangerous being in the entire multiverse—a Bernard completely devoid of any morals."

"..." The people from Riley's universe all turned their heads toward Riley as they heard Bard's words.

"So… he's basically Riley, then?" Hannah raised an eyebrow.

"No, Sister," Riley immediately shook his head, however, "I am not as intelligent as Father. And I do have morals, I just do not care for it. If I did, indeed, did not have any sort of morality — then I would have already killed all of you, including you, Sister."

"Trust me, Bard," Aerith stood in front of Bard as she looked him in the eyes, "For people like that, going on the offensive is the only way to go. The more we wait, the more he will just grow stronger. You've heard what Rainbowking said — he summoned another Tedi. He had probably also killed her from 86's universe and took control of her corpse…

…We can't let him amass more—"

"You're right," Bard did not let Aerith finish her words as he walked away, "Anna, summon everyone — we need to make sure King doesn't kill or find any members of the council. It's not the variants of Tedi I am afraid of, Aerith. I am afraid of mine…

…if other Bernards decided to join him, then we would have already lost this war before we could even join it."

***

"Why are we even talking about this? We do not need a plan, we just need to attack."

"I agree. Whatever plan we may have, we need to assume that King already has countermeasures to it — planning is useless."

The Council of Ross gathered in no time in the circular auditorium. This time, however, any air of debate or disagreement was nowhere to be heard. All of them just nodded their heads as Bard proposed to go on the offensive.

"My wife and her people are ready to fight — I have made them aware of King's existence."

"We are all ready to fight."

"Now that is what I'm fucking talking about."

Hannah and Nannah bumped arms as they saw all the Bernards coming into unison without even needing to convince them.  A few seconds later, however, Hannah turned to look at the people of her universe.

"Should we… also bring more reinforcements?" She looked at Aerith, Diana, Xra, and Riley — perhaps four of the strongest beings in their universe. There was also Chihiro, whose full strength was still completely unknown to them.

They also have a humanoid Cherbi and Ahor Zai; how useful they would actually be is also yet to be determined.

"We need to scout first," Bernard shook his head, "The more people we involve in this… war, the more defenseless our own universe will be. Bard is right, we don't know anything about King — if he has allies, how many subordinates he has, how many."

"Everyone!" Bard raised his hand, "We may not be able to stop the gods, but King is not a god! He is but one of us, and sooner or later, we will all die…

…he just has to go first."

"For the Multiverse!" All the Bernards started raising their voices, stomping their feet on the floor as hard as they could as they continued to cheer.

"We will avenge our fallen brothers!"

"For 86!"

"..." The smile on Bard's face instantly withered away as soon as he heard those words. He then glanced at Bernard, who also looked at the variant who shouted 86's number. Bard has told them the details about King's attack, yes — but he deliberately excluded some details in order to determine if King had already managed to recruit some of the council members to his side.

The detail he left out was which one between Barney and 86 was killed.

And so, without even as much as a nod, both Bernard and Bard suddenly rushed toward the variant — completely sealing his movements as they locked his limbs with some sort of chain that attached to the floor like a magnet.

"W… what's the meaning of thi—"

And without even letting the variant explain, Bernard kicked him straight on the chin, instantly incapacitating him.

"Anna! Question him!" And as Bard said those words, the floor opened up beneath the variant and swallowed him whole.

And while the variant was descending, Bernard quickly looked at each of the variants to read their faces…

…only for Bernard himself to furrow his eyebrows.

"Oh…" Bernard whispered

.

And as Bard heard Bernard's slightly loud gasp, he quickly turned to look at the other Bernards, only to see almost half of them suddenly armoring up; their eyes, almost blazing as they turned orange.

"Oh…" Bard also whispered,

"...We're fucked."