Villain's Rising

After a few minutes, when the flames from the explosion created by the fire dragon subsided, a man's silhouette was seen standing there.

All the special military personnel immediately pointed their guns at the silhouette while all the Heroes held their breaths.

"In the darkest moment, we must focus on finding our light. I'm not your light. I'm your darkest moment."

The dust settled, and the light fell on the silhouette—revealing the monstrosity that was standing there, ready to slaughter all his enemies.

It was Sam's clone, but it was barely recognizable.

He had two violet crystal-like horns protruding out from his forehead. His short black hair extended to fall all down the way to his waist.

His skin paled and almost resembled the color of snow. Long claws sprang from his fingers and toes while his eyes turned into full violet, leaving no space for white.

Black fur grew on his naked skin that made him look like he was wearing a short sleeve robe and from his back grew a pair of black flesh, bat-like wings large enough to enshroud his form.

If not before, then he was clearly looking like a Demon right now— no, he was looking like a king of Demons.

That was Sam's battle form, or what he likes to call a Demon form. It was a body enhanced to its end for the sole purpose of combat and adaptiveness.

In his right hand, he was holding the limp body of a red-haired girl from her hair. It was Scarlet Vampire. He had killed her.

Standing there with his head tilted to the side slightly, Sam had an amused expression in his eyes. His lips slowly parted, and he spoke in a deep, petrifying voice.

"Now, I will give you one chance to surrender, and I shall grant you a painless death. Refuse and face a fate that'll make death seem merciful." He said.

No one, not even Eve, dared to speak anything in reply. They all were fighting their instincts which were telling them to run away.

How can one man impose such fearful feelings in the hearts of people with nothing but his presence?!

Eve gritted his teeth. He was the first to make any kind of movement. "We are Heroes. We find glory in death!"

"Then glory shall you be granted."

As soon as Sam and Eve exchanged those words, Eve extended his hand and engulfed his palm in red, dazzling flames.

Drake followed and activated his ability. His whole body was enveloped in bright red flames, much like Eve's palm, and he lowered his stance— ready to rush at Sam.

-Tick

The sound of simultaneous gun loadings resounded throughout the surrounding area. Still, before any of them could even pull the trigger, San blurred out of existence and appeared before one of the military personnel.

The military man widened his eyes from behind his mask, but the poor man could not even react before Sam impaled his palm on his chest like a sword.

The other military personnel reacted quickly and drew their plasma knives at Sam.

However, Sam's body erupted into spikes like he was a porcupine and pierced several nearby troops.

The spikes retracted into Sam's body. One of the troops started shooting with his rifle without caring for misfires and hitting his allies.

Sam grabbed one of the dead bodies and used it as a shield before rushing up to the gunman and slicing his neck from his claw.

Seeing this, Heroes, who have already given up on any long-range attacks, launched at Sam with the intention to overpower him in close combat.

Sam was still busy slicing several of the military troops when a fireball whipped through the air and shot at him.

Sam, who had already sensed the attack coming, grabbed one of the military men by his hand and used him as a shield.

-BOOM!

The fireball hit the troop's body and blasted his body into molten flesh.

"Don't use a ranged attack," Eve, who was running beside Drake, advised.

Drake nodded, and like a rocket, his flame-enveloped body shot at Sam from his behind.

Sam turned his right hand into a sword and swirled around. He used his momentum to swing his arm sword at Drake.

Drake ducked and evaded the blade. From his lowered stance, he shot up with an uppercut.

Sam used his left hand to block the uppercut but unbeknownst to him, that's what Drake was aiming for.

-BOOM!

As soon as Drake's fist touched Sam, flames erupted, and a blast akin to a TNT explosion occurred— sending Sam's body flying a few feet back.

While in mid-air, Sam flapped his wings and regained his balance before he flew up in the air.

"Is he trying to escape?!" Drake frowned annoyingly.

Eve didn't reply and simply ran up to him and aimed his burning palms at the ground.

-Thrush!

Flames erupted from Eve's palm and, like a rocket thruster, propelled him into the air. He closed the distance between him and Sam in a few seconds.

Several Heroes and remaining military personnel activated their ability in order to assist Eve from the ground.

Even the ones who could fly didn't follow him since they knew they wouldn't be much of a help anyway.

Lightbringer was different, of course. He knew he would be a help in the sky, but he still didn't follow Eve.

He was waiting for a chance to distract Sam and let Eve hit the final blow since Eve was still at his peak, unlike Lightbringer, who had to fight Lucas and almost died.

"Our will won't ever fade!" Eve raged. His voice traveled throughout the endless sky as he summoned a fire sword in his hand.

He pulled back his sword arm and yelled, "Dragon's Judgement!"

As soon as he said those words, Eve rushed at Sam with the fire sword in his hand, with velocity far surpassing the speed of sound.

-KABOOM!

The sound barrier broke and Eve appeared in front of Sam in the blink of an eye.

Sam could only widen his eyes, but he still had time. Eve's sword arm was still pulled back. He still had to swing!

Seeing this, Sam activated his [Biology Manipulation] ability to disrupt Eve's nervous system and kill him.

This was a perfect chance to kill him since they were isolated in the sky, and it would take at least a second for Eve to swing his sword in mid-air– thus giving Sam a chance to focus.

This was exactly the chance Lightbringer was waiting for! He instantly turned into a golden beam, and with the speed of light, he appeared behind Sam.

Sam's senses alerted him of an enemy behind him. He now had to make a choice. Who to deal with first?! Lightbringer or Eve.

It didn't take long for him to realize Eve was the immediate threat. Even if he dies here, at least his original won't have to deal with Eve.

With that thought, Sam focused on Eve. That was a miscommunication on Sam's part. Lightbringer had expected him to ignore him.

Seeing that, Lightbringer smirked and raised his hand. With the sun at his back, he bent the light around him and shot a massive laser beam that blasted a hole in Sam's torso.

"Khufu!" A pained scream escaped Sam's mouth.

Since every sense is vital in battle, Sam didn't switch off his pain receptors. That, although it was a good decision, cost him gravely at this moment.

The pain disrupted Sam's focus, and he couldn't go through with his plan. He couldn't use his [Biology Manipulation] to kill Eve.

Eve seized this chance and swung his fire sword at Sam.

-Shirll!

-KABOOOM!

As soon as the blade came in contact with Sam, a high pitch, metallic sound reverberated in the sky, and the fire sword detonated— creating a majestic explosion.

From the spectator's point of view on the ground, the explosion looked as if a second sun was spawning in the sky.

It was at, if not above, the level of a nuclear explosion.

Everyone gasped at the sight of Eve unleashing his full power in front of them. Surely, this was enough to kill him, right?

But even though they were certain of Sam's clone's death, they couldn't help but gulp at the fact that it took all this effort for them to kill a clone!

If his clone was this durable, then how strong would the real deal be?! Do they even have the chance of stopping them?

After roughly a minute passed, the second sun that Eve had spawned started shrinking while the blinding light and heat that it was started to subside.

"Is it finally over?" One of the men in the military mask spoke.

All of the people present there looked at him with an annoyed expression.

Doesn't he know that you shouldn't raise red flags after defeating a villain?!

After another minute passed, a body emerged from the sun and descended from the sky.

-Thud

It was Eve. As soon as he reached a safe height, his body fell to the ground.

Everyone rushed at him to check his health but ahead of them all was Drake.

"Father! Are you okay?!" Rushing up to his father, Drake asked while kneeling beside his lying body.

Eve, on the brink of collapsing, whispered a few scarcely recognizable words before passing out. "Lightbringer… we lost him…."