Villain Retirement

"...I'll see you soon."

"...What?"

What just happened? — was the thought that repeated inside King's mind for a million times in less than a second, and no one could really blame him. And it wasn't just him; his army, the variants he was with could not help but just look around, wondering where the enemies they were previously just fighting disappeared to.

"What did you do!?" King grabbed Riley by the shoulders, but he was completely unresponsive; his arms, just slowly flailing with his body as King started shaking him. King then let go of Riley as he once again turned to look at the expanse of dead space that was their battlefield, joining his army in scanning where their enemies could probably be suddenly hiding.

"...Review footage, 60 seconds."

King's helmet covered his face; this time, however, the front was slightly translucent; the footage that his armor recorded, starting to overlay with the scenery around him. He then looked around again as he watched the recording.

Diana and the others were still all there, with Diana threatening to blow up the cosmic compressor. King summoned the portal and started backing away, before he lunged onto Hannah and gave everyone a surprise they would never forget.

Everything that happened did happen. King then turned to look to where Diana and the others could have escaped to, only to see that they were already gone.

"...What?" King could really only blink his eyes before he once again rewound the footage just a few seconds before he stabbed his arm through Hannah's heart. This time, however, he made sure to focus on Diana and the others.

"..."

"!!!"

And there, as soon as he stabbed Hannah… he saw Diana and the others just disappear.

They did not jump to a portal, they did not even slowly fade away—they just truly disappeared. King tried slowing down the footage, but even the span of a millisecond did not show how they disappeared. It was as if they…

…did not exist at all.

"...Illusion. Is that why… I couldn't read their thoughts?" He then very slowly turned to look at Riley again, whose body was just aimlessly floating; as dead as the universe they were in. And after a few seconds of staring at him, his eyes turned wide as he immediately rushed toward him — kicking with all his force and ripping him apart in half.

He did not do it out of anger, however; his eyebrows did not tremble due to rage…

…but fear.

He quickly grabbed Riley's upper body, before throwing it straight onto Esme.

"Destroy him! Leave not even a single drop of his blood!" King let out a roar as he grabbed Riley's lower half and pulled his legs apart, before using his blood-control abilities to just disintegrate Riley's body and literally turn it into nothing but a bubble of blood. The darkness around his hands then started to distort as he released a heat that instantly vaporized Riley's blood.

He then turned to look at Esme, who had just finished literally scrubbing off Riley's entire upper body with her palms — not even leaving vapor.

"What is—"

"Nobody moves! Don't even breathe!" King raised a finger—not letting anyone from his army to even talk or move as his eyes looked everywhere, "If you notice anything emerging, even just a trickle of blood, a bone, or brain matter or whatever…

…squash it immediately!"

King was wary, extremely so. How could he not be?

He knew about Riley's true ability; killing him was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He was already unstoppable the very first time he had met him in the Council of Ross. His only saving grace was that Riley seemed interested in him and wanted to see what he would do.

King was confident with his power, but he wasn't a fool. He knew he couldn't defeat him alone the last time—but now, if all the stories about him are to be believed…

…then all the abilities King has painstakingly collected throughout the years and throughout the multiverse, Riley also has.

But of course, there was a chance that Riley wouldn't be able to copy any of his abilities, as they weren't King's in the first place.

"If the gods are with me and my cause…" King whispered to himself, "...then let that be the case. Do any of you see any—!!!"

And as he turned to look at his army, he noticed that someone was missing — Princess Esme.

"Where did she—" And before King could even finish his words, he watched as one by one, his army just disappeared into nowhere. At first, the interval was slow, but soon, they started disappearing in less than a second.

"No…" King could not help but stutter as he realized what was going on. And without even hesitating, he took in a short but very deep breath… and stopped time.

Only to see Riley's face right in front of his.

"!!!"

"This… ability… is sad… King."

King used whatever strength he could as his head started to tremble. King, in truth, never truly considered himself a god, just a ruler. But he would lie to himself if he said that his abilities were anything but close to that of a god.

And there was one ability that truly put him there — his ability to stop time.

But of course, with great power, comes greater consequences. His body, no matter how many life-saving abilities and body regeneration abilities he has stolen, not even one of them was able to handle the stress of stopping time, even Xra's blood abilities.

And so, he truly only used them when he was desperate, truly desperate — because if he used them too much, he would just die on the spot.

"Do… you know how… many times I… have died?" Riley then whispered as King watched as he very slowly floated away, "Pa…voom."

"!!!" King then watched as Riley pointed his finger at one of the Elder Tedis, only for them to just disappear without a trace… along with Riley. King's eyes turned everywhere, trying to see even though the trace of light around him did not really change and flow with his movements.

He did not have to look around for long, however, as Riley just materialized in front of him again like nothing happened. But alas, before he could watch what happened next, his body instinctively deactivated his ability — as any further use of his time-stopping power would kill him.

And there, King could really only just watch as his army just disappeared into existence without any trace.

"Cool, right?"

"!!!" King's eyes widened as he heard a small voice whisper into his ear. He quickly turned to look at his left, only to see no one there.

"Honestly, you've already lost a month ago."

"Who… who is that!?" King waved his hand as his helmet unfolded; his hair, completely disheveled from all the sweat; his face, covered in blood from using his time-stop ability, "Show yourself!"

"Okay."

"!!!" King then immediately grabbed his ear as he felt something crawling out from it—and as he looked at his hand, he saw something small trying its best to hug his finger, but failing as it truly was too small — almost as small as an ant.

"Riley… Ross?" King could really only hold his breath as the miniature Riley Ross started sliding down his finger, "You…"

"Don't be so shocked, you have the same ability. No?" Mini Riley shrugged as he sat cross-legged on King's palm, "Except the only difference is the Boss could instinctively push whatever ability he copies to almost its full potential, almost."

"Since… since when have you been there?"

"Uh…" Mini Riley placed his hand on his chin, "When you impersonated Rainbowking, the last time you and Boss met."

"...What?" King could really only blink a couple of times, before a small chuckle forced its way out of his mouth, "Are… are you saying you have been inside my head for a month?"

"Hm," Mini Riley shrugged, "I told you, you've already lost a month ago — Boss just wanted you to… lose the right way."

"You…"

"Oh, yes…" A smile started to crawl on Mini Riley's face while he nodded several times, "...I know everything, Mr. King. Your true hideout, where you are hiding Ms. Paige, and also…

…where you are hiding all the Mr. Steve Bridges. Naughty, naughty."

"Why… why did you not just kill me?" King's lips started to tremble; his army, continuing to disappear in the background.

"I told you, Boss wanted you to lose the right way," Mini Riley's smile now reached from ear to ear, 

"And by that, I mean the very… pft… very wrong way. Everything you rule, everything you still love, we will let you dec—"

And before Mini Riley could finish his words, King squashed him.

"This was not actually going to be how the scenery unfolds, King."

"..." King could really only hold his breath as he heard—no. As he felt Riley Ross very slowly creeping from behind him.

"I was going to make you feel even more desperate…" Riley whispered into King's ear; his body, completely covered in blood, "...Desperate enough that you would lobotomize your best friend. I even prepared zombies, King. Zombies."

"You…"

"But as soon as we met on this battlefield, I realized from Little Riley that you would never do that." Riley then very slowly floated in front of King, "Because you love him too much. Even though they are just variants, you protect them even if you have to hurt them, even though you know they hate you."

"..."

"So, I will make it easy for you…"

"!!!" King could really only watch as his armor started to disassemble, before crawling toward Riley. And with a very quiet and soft ripple, a portal emerged from behind him.

"...I'll help you in dissecting them, King."